Waite’s Family Comforted by Ex-Hostage

Relatives of Terry Waite said Wednesday that they were “comforted by the good news” they received from freed British hostage John McCarthy, who was held captive with Waite in Lebanon.

In a related development, Shiite Muslim sources in Beirut said Wednesday that top Hezbollah and Iranian leaders in Tehran were discussing steps that could restart stalled U.N.-sponsored efforts to exchange Western hostages in Lebanon for Arab prisoners in Israel.

Hezbollah, or Party of God, is believed to be the umbrella group for factions loyal to Iran that hold most of the 10 Westerners missing in Lebanon.

Waite’s wife, Frances, his brother David, and Frances Witts, the Middle East affairs adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, met with McCarthy for five hours at an undisclosed site in Britain.

“John was relaxed and in good spirits and was able to describe how their living conditions had improved and how the four hostages had been able to support each other,” David Waite said.

McCarthy shared captivity in Beirut with Anglican church envoy Waite, American journalist Terry A. Anderson and academic Thomas M. Sutherland, also an American.

“The good thing about the meeting was the fact that we were able to . . . talk with someone who had been with Terry so recently,” David Waite said.

It was not disclosed when the meeting took place. McCarthy met on Sunday with Peggy Say, Anderson’s sister.

The Beirut sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity, said the consultations between Iranian officials and three Hezbollah leaders focused on how and when to provide U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar with information that Israel wants on seven of its servicemen missing in Lebanon.

Islamic Jihad, the group that freed McCarthy, sent a letter to Perez de Cuellar with McCarthy on Aug. 8 proposing a swap of the hostages and missing Israeli servicemen for Shiites held by Israel and Western nations.

Israel has said it is prepared to make some “gestures” if factions holding its seven MIAs in Lebanon provide reliable information on their fate or whereabouts.

Other sources with knowledge of the talks in Tehran predicted that the stalled hostage negotiations would regain momentum in September.

“There seems to be a consensus among fundamentalist leaders here that Iran wants to accelerate the process of resolving the hostage issue,” a fundamentalist source in Lebanon said.

Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who wants to end Iran’s international isolation, has called for the release of the hostages. But Iran has also been trying to drum up international pressure on Israel to make the next move by releasing its Arab prisoners.