Tracking Number: 196934
Title: A sampling of US editorial opinion on the hostage-release negotiations in the Middle East. (910913)
Date: 19910913
Text:
*NEA505
09/13/91 *
U.S. PRESS OPINION: HOSTAGE-RELEASE NEGOTIATIONS (Roundup of editorials) (720)
U.S. newspapers have been commenting editorially on hostage-release negotiations. The following are excerpts:
THE NEW YORK TIMES:
After weeks of deadlock, the hostage impasse in the Middle East appears to be yielding to diplomacy. On Wednesday (September 11), Israel released 51 Arab prisoners and the bodies of nine Lebanese guerrillas in return for definitive information on the death of one of seven missing Israeli soldiers.
On Thursday two guerrilla groups in Lebanon released photographs of Terry Anderson...and Jack Mann, a Briton who was feared dead. And Israel received the remains of a soldier.
These modest yet promising moves matter far more than the ritualistic bombast from one of the groups, Islamic Holy War, complaining that Israel's gesture was "incomplete...." The moves keep alive hopes for a comprehensive settlement that could finally liberate the 10 Western hostages....
The movement also offers incipient reward for the patient exertions of the U.N. secretary general, Javier Perez de Cuellar, who met with Iranian leaders this week in Tehran to win their cooperation. The secretary general has earned the trust of all sides as well as the praise President Bush offers. If Washington can do nothing directly to nudge the process forward, it can make plain its wholehearted support for the negotiator.
The exchange on Wednesday vindicates Israeli stubbornness in insisting on an accounting of its citizens' fate, despite second-guessing from many quarters, including this page. And it suggests that hostage-taking gangs are responding to pressure from their Iranian and Syrian patrons.
Israelis believe that Ron Arad, a missing air force navigator, is still alive. Until his fate is determined, and the other Israelis accounted for, Israel cannot reasonably be expected to release the rest of its several hundred remaining prisoners....It will strengthen Perez de Cuellar's hand if Americans and Europeans make plain their solidarity with Israel on this matter.
GE 2 NEA505
The earlier release of a British and an American hostage was...a crude wedge-driving effort to force Israel to release its prisoners without reciprocation. To frustrate that strategy, all nations need to stick together and keep the pressure where it belongs: on the shadowy gangs who persist in these cruel crimes.
THE BOSTON GLOBE:
...The sham of a delicate diplomatic process is a face- saving measure for the Lebanese kidnappers and their patrons in Tehran. The real reason that hostages seized in Beirut are about to be released is because the Iranian regime cannot expect to receive the Western credits, investment and technology it needs until Ayatollah Khomeini's successors order their Lebanese agents to let the hostages go.
Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani saves face by pretending he has some influence, but not total control, over the kidnappers -- and by transforming the "issue" of the hostages into a political confrontation with Israel.
Naive Westerners, forgetting that the original demand of the kidnappers was for the release of convicted terrorists held in Kuwait, too readily accept the Iranian ploy of making Israel responsible for difficulties in arranging a hostage release....
The U.S. government, the families of the hostages and U.N. diplomats have no choice but to play along with the charade. Israel's exchange of 51 detainees and nine cadavers for reliable information about the death of one Israeli soldier is a sign that Israel also must play along. But once the hostages are free, nobody should thank Tehran for helping to make progress.
USA TODAY:
A hopeful sign: Some quiet voices of reason appear now to be dominating the Mideast hostage dialogue.
They are still occasionally drowned out by the fanatic ravings of kidnappers, but the balance and tone have changed....
Iran and Syria, long-time terrorist sponsors, now seem committed to finding a face-saving way to end the crisis.
But much of the credit right now belongs to Israel.
GE 3 NEA505 Israel released 51 Arabs in exchange for news of a single dead Israeli soldier. In exchange for releasing more, Israel asks only that its own few prisoners be returned and dead accounted for - a sensible stance that deserves support.
The stage now is set for a series of tit-for-tat releases that could end the hostage crisis -- if only the voices of reason can continue to prevail.
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