Anglicans Ask Iranians’ Help to Free Hostages

Church of England officials ended talks with an Iranian diplomat Sunday by appealing to Tehran to help secure the release of British hostages held in Lebanon.

In Tehran, a government-run newspaper said in an editorial Sunday that Iran will work to free the British hostages.

Mohammed Reza Said Mohamedi, an official from the Iranian Foreign Ministry, arrived in London five days ago and discussed the hostages’ plight with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert A. K. Runcie. He also met with Runcie’s adviser, John Lyttle.

A spokesman for Runcie said the talks were conducted in an “open and relaxed manner on both sides.”

‘Undoubted Influence’

The archbishop now looks to Iran to use all its “undoubted influence” in Lebanon to help free Church of England envoy Terry Waite, journalist John McCarthy and university professor Brian Keenan, the spokesman said.

The three hostages are believed to be held by pro-Iranian groups in Beirut.

The spokesman said Runcie “is firmly of the view that any government which has influence that might bring about the release of hostages of whatever nationality should use it without qualification.”

He added that Runcie was heartened by improvements in Anglo-Iranian ties, including the visit to Iran by the first British diplomat in more than a year, David Reddaway.

Will See Jailed Briton

In Tehran, Reddaway said he met with Foreign Ministry officials twice Sunday and that they told him he would be able to meet jailed Briton Roger Cooper this week. He gave no other details.

Cooper, 52, a nephew of the late British poet and novelist Robert Graves, was arrested in December, 1985, and has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Meanwhile, the English-language Tehran Times made it clear that the effort to free the hostages is linked with attempts to find Iranians believed held in Lebanon. “Undoubtedly, the Islamic Republic of Iran will spare no effort to press ahead with the release of British hostages, particularly Terry Waite,” the newspaper said.

“Yet what Iran legitimately expects of Britain is to provide Iran with all the information possible about the fate of four Iranian hostages” believed held by Christian militiamen “under the influence of Britain,” it added.

London and Tehran downgraded relations last summer when a British diplomat was beaten in Iran after the arrest in Manchester, England, of an Iranian official on shoplifting charges.