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Syria, Iran Tell Israel:
'Free Shi'ite Hostages'
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64
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1990
11
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Washington (JTA) — The
Syrian foreign minister and
an Iranian diplomat in-
dicated Sunday that no more
U.S. hostages would be
released until Israel frees
some 400 Lebanese Shi'ites
it is holding.
Both Farouk a-Sharaa, the
Syrian official, and Kamal
Kharrazi, Iran's ambassador
to the United Nations, said
this was the "goodwill"
gesture their two countries
were seeking for their help
in gaining the freedom re-
cently of two U.S. hostages
held in Lebanon.
The two officials appeared
on ABC-TV news program
"This Week with David
Brinkley."
"I believe it is very easy
for the United States
government to contact Israel
and convince them to release
these hostages," Kharrazi
said.
Sharaa maintained that
Syria and Iran both have
only limited influence with
the Lebanese groups that
have taken hostages. He
said the demand for Israel to
release its prisoners was
"not a precondition, not a
deal" but a humanitarian
gesture.
He blamed the hostage-
taking and the anarchy in
Lebanon on Israel's June
1982 invasion of the country.
"There was no hostage-
taking in Lebanon before the
Israeli invasion in Lebanon
in 1982," Sharaa said.
He said that various
groups in Lebanon took
hostages in "reaction to the
Israeli invasion, what
happened to their families,
their children, their houses,
`demolitioning' their houses,
the continuing air raids."
"This is an ethical issue,"
he said. "How do you expect
these people to be so human-
itarian to release the Ameri-
can hostages and other
Western hostages when
their relatives have been
kidnapped by Israel."
Israeli Deputy Foreign
Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who was
scheduled to appear on the
program, did not go on the
air, because ABC would not
accept his condition that he
not be asked about the
Shi'ite prisoners or Israeli
soldiers held by Lebanese
groups, said Sam Donaldson,
who hosted the program
Sunday.
But another guest on the
program, Gary Sick, a staff
member on the National
Security Council in the
Carter administration, said
Israel is willing to release
the Shi'ites, whom he called
"counter-hostages," but only
if the Israeli soldiers are
freed.
"They don't want to get
caught in a situation where
the United States wants to
gets its hostages back, but
the Israeli prisoners are
forgotten," Sick said.
He said he believed only
one of the Israelis, a
navigator who bailed out
when his plane was shot
down, is still alive. He said
two soldiers who were cap-
tured while on patrol in
southern Lebanon are prob-
ably dead.
Kharrazi said Iran also
wants the release of four
Iranians taken in 1982 by
Christian groups in Leb-
anon.
President Bush recently
said that as a goodwill
gesture, the United States
could seek to learn what
happened to the Iranians,
although the United States
believes they are dead. But
Kharrazi said he believes at
least three of them are still
alive.
Reform Jews
Open Office
Jerusalem (JTA) — A
branch of the Reform
Judaism movement has es-
tablished an office in Israel
to help serve recent Soviet
immigrants faced with re-
ligious and other problems.
Officials at the new Legal
Aid and Information Center
of the Israel Religious Ac-
tion Center said the most
frequent problem Soviet
immigrants face is the ques-
tion of their Jewish status.
Interior Ministry officials
have refused to register
many recent Soviet arrivals
as Jews because they have
been unable to prove they
are halachically Jewish.
"Religious politics must
not be permitted to interfere
with their absorption," said
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, executive
director of the Association of
Reform Zionists of America,
which founded the Israel Re-
ligious Action Center in
1987.
Yoffie said he has received
reports of cases of immi-
grants who have been
registered as Jews, yet their
claims are considered ques-
tionable by the Interior Min-
istry. Although allowed to
settle in Israel, they will not
be allowed to marry there,
Yoffie said.