The leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah says he is not considering the release of American hostages, and has threatened new violence against Israel, the United States and Western Europe in an interview published in the West German magazine Stern.
Hussein Musawi, who heads the pro-Iranian Islamic fundamentalist group called “party of God,” offered to make a bargain with the West German government, the Hamburg weekly reported.
He said two German hostages, Heinrich Struebig and Thomas Kempner, would be freed if West Germany released the brothers Mohamad and Ali Hamadei, both serving 10-years-to-life sentences for terrorist acts.
But Musawi offered no deals to the United States or Israel. Stern quoted him as saying that violence is “the only way to oppose the Zionist occupation of Palestinian lands.”
He accused the West of supporting the “occupation” and said Israel should be “annihilated and wiped out.”
Mohamad Hamadei, arrested in West Germany, was convicted of hijacking an American airliner and killing one of its passengers.
He was tried in a West German court after the Bonn government refused an American request for extradition.
Ali Hamadei was convicted of kidnapping two West German nationals to hold hostage for the release of his brother.
The hostages, Alfred Schmidt and Rudolf Cordes, were eventually freed.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
