‘U.S. ready for contacts’

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 8

‘U.S. ready for contacts’

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States, pleased at Iran’s acceptance of a ceasefire in its war with Iraq, says it is ready for contacts with Iranian leaders but restoration of diplomatic relations is not an immediate prospect. State Department officials said Iran’s announcement on Monday that it would accept a United Nations Security Council resolution urging a ceasefire could remove one of the three obstacles blocking the re-establish-ment of ties. The United States views these obstacles as Iran’s pursuit of the war, its alleged support for international terrorism and alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Americans in Lebanon by pro-Iranian militants.

Discussing relations with the Iranians, the Secretary of State, George Shultz, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday: “We remain, as we have been, prepared for direct discussions with them about all manner of issues that concern us.”

United States-Iranian relations have been frozen since 1979, when revolutionary backers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took 52 Americans hostage and held them for

444 days. Mr Shultz repeated American willingness to re-open direct contacts with “authoritative representatives” of the Teheran Government. He stressed that the United States had no immediate plans to reduce a force of 27 warships in and near the Gulf despite Teheran’s surprise acceptance of the ceasefire resolution.

“We’ll be there as long as it takes to serve the peaceful and proper mission that we undertook,” Mr Shultz said.

“If the problems go away, the ship presence will go down. Just when it will be apparent that that is the case remains to be seen.”

The Deputy Secretary of State, John Whitehead, said in a television interview he saw no direct link between the ceasefire and the fate of foreign hostages.

He said it may indicate “that they have decided to come into the rest of the world and stop their acts of terrorism and possibly to take some action on the hostages. I think we can see a flicker of hope in that area today.”

Mr Whitehead said there had been no recent attempts by the Iranians to open contacts with American officials.