U.N. set to call for release of hostages

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 8

U.N. set to call for release of hostages

NZPA-Reuter New York 1 A resolution calling for' the immediate release ofAmerican hostages in Tehe-! ran will be put to the United Nations Security! council today, according to the chief United States delegate, Mr Donald McHenry. Council members said they: expected the resolution to be adopted by tomorrow at the latest, and possibly even at! today’s session. United Nations sources said the resolution would be put forward as a presidential draft, meaning that it would not have national or group sponsorship. This is the customary procedure when the. council is in unanimous ac-| cord.

The resolution, which was still being worked on by delegates yesterday, will call on the United States and Iran to resolve peacefully the dispute which erupted when militant students’ seized the United States embassy in Teheran. The students are holding 50 hostages at the embassy, saying they will be released only if the deposed Shah is returned to Iran from the United States. The United Nations Secre-tary-General (Dr Kurt Wald-, heim), who has been trying through private, personal diplomacy to defuse the crisis, will be aksed in the resolution to use his good offices to help implement the council’s decision and report

back urgently to members. Dr Waldheim has said repeatedly he is ready to go to Teheran if the Iranian authorities assure him they will free the hostages. Mr McHenry told reporters that he was confident the resolution would be introduced today. He confirmed that it would not include any provision for an investigation of crimes, including human-rights vio- f lations, alleged to have been committed by the former , Shah and his regime. Iran’s revolutionary leader. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, has described the Security Council as “satanic” and said its members were servants of President Carter of the United States.