A Possible U.s-israeli-iranian Connection Seen in Efforts to Gain Release of U.S. Hostages in Lebano

The United States may have received the cooperation of Israelis in supplying American weapons spare parts to Iran in efforts to negotiate the release of American hostages in Lebanon, according to an Israel Radio report.

The broadcast said that Robert McFarlane, former National Security Advisor to President Reagan, met with Israeli officials, including David Kimche when he was Director-General of the Foreign Ministry until last month when Yitzhak Shamir replaced Shimon Peres as Premier under the national unity government’s rotation agreement. McFarlane and Kimche are reportedly very friendly. The Israel Consul General in New York was not available for comment.

Earlier this week, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Hajatolislam Hashemi Rafsanjani, announced that McFarlane and four other Americans made a secret mission to Iran in September offering American spare parts.

Sources in the U.S. government confirmed that the Administration was involved in an ongoing effort to allow spare parts to reach Iran through third parties in efforts to win Iranian assistance in controlling terrorism, according to press reports.

Rafsanjani was quoted in the Iranian and American press as saying that McFarlane and four unidentified Americans arrived last September on a plane loaded with spare parts, posing as crew members. Iran reportedly purchased the equipment from international arms dealers. McFarlane and his four escorts were reportedly held in a hotel room for five days and then deported.

BACKGROUND DETAILED IN JTA SERIES

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in a series dated October 21, 22 and 23 on a court case involving a $2.5 billion arms sale of American weapons to Iran by international arms dealers including Israelis.

In the case, 17 defendants, four of them Israelis, are charged in a New York court with conspiracy to sell some $2.5 billion worth of American-made weapons and spare parts to Iran through a third party.

Attorneys for defendants in the case filed papers in court contending that high-ranking U.S. Administration, State Department and Pentagon officials considered and eventually approved covert arms sales of American military hardware to Iran.

The lawyers said the U.S. officials had used some of the defendants, who were international arms merchants, as intermediaries to sell the arms to Iran.

The defendants in the case negotiated with an Iranian who they said posed as a buyer for the Iranian government but who was actually acting as an informant for the U.S. government. That man, Cyrus Hashemi, is the cousin of the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who first released the story on McFarlane’s visit.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BY U.S. GOVERNMENT SOURCES

Government sources in the U.S. have acknowledged that Teheran was promised, in exchange for assistance in getting the American hostages in Lebanon released, that the U.S. would not block the sale of surplus American arms and spare parts to Iran from third parties, according to reports this week.

Although there is no ostensible link between the McFarlane caper and the court case involving the Israeli arms dealers, the most recent reports seem to confirm much of what the lawyers in the case have alleged in regard to the U.S. government’s involvement in third party sales of American surplus military hardware.

For example, in the JTA report, sources in Washington were quoted as saying one motivation for opening up covert arms sales to Iran might be to cultivate the more moderate elements in Iran. Wednesday, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig said publicly that he did not doubt that the U.S. is trying to cultivate the moderate elements in Iran. JTA also reported on the case that U.S. officials were using middlemen like Israel to deliver the American weapons to Iran. The Israel Radio report also seemed to confirm these earlier comments by officials.

Sources in the government had acknowledged previously that an active debate existed between the different agencies of government on whether to open up the covert sales of weapons to Iran. The most recent reports back this up. ABC News reported that the McFarlane mission had taken place with only the knowledge of the National Security office and a few high-placed officials.

Attorneys in the case of the Israeli arms dealers said that based on their interviews with defendants, the State Department, Pentagon and the Administration were the key governmental bodies deciding on the policies of arms shipments to Iran.

U.S. officials denied any roles in approving the deal in question in the New York City court case. But this week many U.S. officials seem much less reluctant to acknowledge that the U.S. has been working with Iran to free the hostages and, for the most part, the government has not denied that some arms shipments to Iran through third parties like Israel have taken place with the tacit approval of the U.S. government.