Carter warns Iran military action may be only option left

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 8

Carter warns Iran military action may be only option left

NZPA-Reuter Washington President Carter has warned Iran that the next step may be military action if economic and political sanctions do not lead to the release of the 50 American hostages in Teheran. Mr Carter, announced further retaliatory measures at a press conference yesterday, including a halt to all Iranian imports to the United States, an immediate ban on travel to Iran, and the barring of financial dealings with Iran by Americans.

He said in answer to a question that the timing‘of any military action would' depend on Iran’s response and the effectiveness of retaliation by the United States and its allies. He set no deadline for allied action but noted that the European Common Market Foreign Ministers would meet next week. “We are beyond the time] for gestures. We want ourj people to be set free,” Mr| Carter said in his opening] statement. Speaking 10 days after he broke off diplomatic relations with Teheran and halted most trade because of the hostage crisis, the President also declared that all United States military equipment previously ordered by Iran and now impounded would be given to American forces or sold to foreign countries. At the same time he sought authority from Congress to dip into the $BOOO million in Iranian assets frozen by the United States last year to pay claims or damages of American citizens or companies. He also asked American news organisations and journalists to restrict their activities in Iran as much as possible, and said he might later ask the 103-member International tele-

' communications satellite organisation (Intelsat) to interrupt Iran’s communications ■with the rest of the world. ! Mr Carter said that a ban ■on exports of food and medicine to Iran could be the next economic sanction if the hostages seized last November 4 remained in captivity. j According to White House officials, President Carter had made up his mind to declare an end to the food and medicine exports yesterday and changed his decision only at the last minute following an appeal from the Secretary of State (Mr ■ Cyrus Vance). Mr Carter said that if the latest sanctions and the joint actions of America’s allies did not bring about the release of the hostages /‘then the only next step available that I can. see would be some sort of military action, ■which is’the prerogative,-and ithe right of the United j States under these circum|stances.” ’ I Mr Carter said some countries had been disappointingly slow to answer his appeal for aid but he believed they would act.' He noted that oil shipments from Iran were already so low that even if they stopped completely, the effect on allies would not be severe.

His press conference took place only four- days before an important primary election in Pennsylvania, where Senator Edward Kennedy is hoping to revive his campaign to wrest the Democratic Party’s nomination from the President.

However, Mr Carter told a reporter: “I do not make and have not made and will not make decisions or announcements concerning the lives and safety of our hostages simply to derive some political benefit from them.”

The leading Republican Party contender for the presidency, the former California Governor, Ronald Reagan, said yesterday he supported Mr Carter’s latest ■ measures. — “except they could have been done five : months ago and should have been done five months ago.” In New York, the United States has accused most 1 United Nations members of being inactive in the hostage crisis and said Third World countries had failed in their responsibilities. William Vanden Heuvel, th’; deputy chief American delegate at the United Nations, said: “No spokesman for a Third World country or any other member State in any of the endless meetings that take place in this building has stood up to suggest that the outrage against the American diploe mats in Teheran is an insult tc every nation that is a member of this organisation.” In what some observers said was the harshest criticism of United Nations members by an American delegate in memory, he went on: “Is it too much to hope or expect the overwhelming majority of the members of the United Nations would find the wavs and means. to support that peaceful process and bring to an end the crisis that could clearly threaten world peace?” In Lisbon, Portugal has announced it has decided to break . off trade relations with. Iran. i In Strasbourg, the European Parliament has approved a resolution backing ithe United States in the conflict with Iran and suggesting suspension of diplomatic relations with Teheran by the nine members of the European Economic Community.