Secret plan to free Hostages ‘wrecked’

Press, 12 May 1980, Page 8

Secret plan to free Hostages ‘wrecked’

NZPA . 1 - London An Irish diplomat, Mr Sean Macßride, asserts a secret draft agreement for the release of the American hostages in Teheran had been all hut completed by the end of March when it was wrecked by Iran’s Foreign Minister and a White House aide, Mr Hamilton Jordan, who were holding their own secret talks, the "Sunday Times" reported. The newspaper quoted Mr Macßride, a Nobel peace prize winner who frequently travelled to: Iran during the early stages of the hostage crisis, as saying he and a New York attorney, Mr Leonard Boudin—an adviser to Iran’s Central Bank-helped work out a pact with the Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr. . Mr Macßride said .his secret negotiations: 'ha'd .&the approval of then-Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance), the national security adviser (Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski), the Iranian revolutionary leader (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny) and Iran’s Ruling Revolutionary Council, the paper reported. But he was quoted as saying: "That pair of playboys, jordan and the Iranian Foreign Minister Sadeq Qotbzadeh, messed it up?’ There was no immediate Comment on the “Sunday Times” report from Washington . or Teheran.

The “Sunday Times” front-page dispatch said Mr jordan and Foreign Minister

Qotbzadeh were holding their own highly secret negotiations separate from the Macßride - Boudin-Bani -Sadr effort. It said highly-placed figures in the United States and Iran knew of both sets of talks but it was not clear if the two negotiating teams were aware of the tandem efforts.

Mr Macßride was quoted as saying Mr Jordan travelled to Europe incognito wearing a grey wig and tinted spectacles and met with Mr Qotbzadeh in hotel rooms in Rome and Monaco for secret talks. The two reportedly worked up a draft letter which, it was proposed. President Carter would send to the Ayatollah - Khomeiny, the newspaper said. The report did not spell out how the Jordan-Qotbza-deh talks upset the , second

set of negotiations. But it quoted Mr Macßride as saying Mr Qotbzadeh prematurely released to the press details of President Carter’s letter, only to have it instantly denied by. the White House, which later said various ideas it passed on to Teheran had been misconstrued by the Iranians. On March 29, Teheran Radio broadcast the text of a purported letter from President Carter, to Ayatollah Khomeiny acknowledging past United States mistakes toward Iran and calling for an international committee to solve the hostage crisis. At first the White House denied President Carter had sent the message, but one day later, White House spokesman Mr Jody Powell, admitted Swiss diplomats Had delivered messages from President Carter to Iranian officials. Mr Powell denied these messages contained admissions of alleged United States mistakes.

The "Sunday Times” also said it had obtained a copy of the draft agreement worked out by Macßride, Boudin and Bani-Sadr.

The newspaper did not publish the draft, but said it called for a tribunal of seven internationally-recog-nised lawyers, chosen jointly by the United States and Iran, to hear allegations of murder and the misuse of authority by the deposed Shah. It said the exiled Shah would not .be present at the so-called trial.