The World - News from Dec. 1, 1986

A longtime Arab-American activist, Mohammed T. Mehdi, arrived in Beirut, saying he hopes to win the release of the remaining American hostages held by extremists in Lebanon. Mehdi, secretary general of the New York-based National Council on Islamic Affairs, was accompanied by Dale Shaheen, the group’s vice president. He called on the captors to contact him in the spirit of Islamic unity and added, without elaborating, that he hopes to win the release of at least one hostage by Christmas. The two men said they have concrete offers for the captors but that “we don’t know what their demands are exactly. We don’t know what their grievances are.”