Israel Key to Hostage Release, Iran Says : Mideast: U.S. pressure on the Jewish state to free Muslim prisoners could help free Westerners in Lebanon, Tehran’s foreign minister suggests.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati suggested Sunday that Western hostages held in Lebanon could be released if the United States would press Israel to free the Lebanese Muslim prisoners it holds.

Velayati also indicated that the United States should play a role in aiding Iraqi refugees who have streamed into Iran in the wake of their failed uprisings against Saddam Hussein.

The diplomat told a news conference that the pro-Iranian Lebanese militants who hold 11 Western hostages--six Americans, two Britons, two Germans and an Italian--are “waiting for a positive response by Western countries--especially the U.S.”

Speaking in English, Velayati said that Iran is “very keen to get the release of all hostages regardless of nationality.”

Israel has jailed without trial several hundred Lebanese, accused of being guerrillas, in two prisons. Israel also abducted a leading Lebanese Shiite militant, Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, in July, 1989.

Further, Velayati called for the release of four Iranians who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982, although most officials believe they were slain by the Christian militia men who took them captive.

Velayati said Iran believes the United States could exert a “big influence” on Israel to free the Lebanese prisoners--which “would create a good climate for the release of all hostages, including Western hostages.”

The main purpose of the Sunday news conference was to call attention to the effort being made by Iran to feed, shelter and care for about 1 million Iraqi refugees, according to Velayati’s estimates.

“There is no doubt that the whole human community is responsible for the maintenance of the Iraqi people,” he said, “and should quickly and with all its might help them irrespective of the causes and elements of this disaster.”

Velayati said that Iran, while it does not want foreign troops on its borders, would probably have no objections to the creation of havens on the Iran-Iraq frontier--similar to those now being set up in Iraq near the Turkish border.

But he insisted that any foreign troops must come under the umbrella of the United Nations.

When asked about the hostages, Velayati said that freedom for those abducted over the last six years in Lebanon is not connected to financial matters involving Iran.

He said British Overseas Development Minister Lynda Chalker, who left Iran on Sunday, also brought up the subject of the hostages and indicated that Israel might hold the key to the problem through the release of the Lebanese it holds captive.

Velayati insisted that, beyond solving the hostage problem, better U.S.-Iranian relations are dependent on other overtures by Washington--including the unblocking of Iranian assets frozen after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and American hostages.

One Middle Eastern diplomat here said he thinks Tehran no longer holds the influence it used to have with the pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon that claim to be holding the Western hostages.

But one senior source said Sunday: “I think the decision to release the hostages will still be made here in Tehran. This government would like to get the whole hostage issue behind it.”