Qotbzadeh rejects suggestion

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 8

Qotbzadeh rejects suggestion

NZPA-Reuter Teheran The Iranian Foreign Minister (Mr Sadeq Qotbzadeh) has rejected suggestions that Iran might take a lesson from the . rescue of the hos- , tages at the Iranian Embas- ■ sy in London by freeing the ; American hostages held in Teheran for the last six months. In a television interview, Mr Qotbzadeh said the American hostage issue was : “completely separate” from the London episode. British and American lead- ; ers have since suggested that the Iranian Government should respond by releasing the 50 Americans seized last November by radical Muslim students demanding the re- ; turn to Iran of the deposed Shah and his wealth. However, Mr Qotbzadeh said: “The occupation of the American Embassy in Iran, which was the' result of many years of pressures and disasters imposed on our nation, has been done by our nation.” The London gunmen said they were Arabs from Iran’s Khuzestan province and called for the release of 91 prisoners there, but Mr Qotbzadeh said they were Iraqis seeking the. secession of Khuzestan, a demand he described as impossible. In another television interview broadcast in the United States yesterday Mr' Qotbzadeh repeated previous statements that the release of the American hostages would depend on the views of Iran’s new Parliament to be elected next week. He said it was possible the hostages could be released within a month if Parliament resolved the problem. The Persian-language newspaper, “Islamic Republic,” mouthpiece of the hardline Islamic Republican Party, yesterday printed -r--in English — a letter from the British Embassy rejecting the paper’s allegations that the British authorities had co-operated with the London gunmen, but said the letter failed to deny thp charges officially and explicitly.