WASHINGTON, Oct 19, Reuter: The United States said on Wednesday it had flatly rejected a proposal by international arms brokers that American made F-5 warplanes is sold to Iran in exchange for nine U.S. hostages.
State Department spokesman Charles Redman, responding to a USS. Television report that Iran last spring was involved in a new arms for hostages ploy, told reporters: “The answer was clear -no deals.”
On Tuesday, ABC News disclosed a complex scheme in which Iran sent an international team of arms dealers to Chile seeking to buy 16 U.S. made F-5 fighters.
Freedom for some or all of the hostages held by Islamic fundamentalists in Lebanon was the price for U.S. permission for Chile to sell the planes, the report said.
Asked about the accuracy of the account by reporters travelling with President Reagan on a political campaign swing in Ohio, white house spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said: “That’s essentially true.”
“It’s just another example of a private individual trying to get involved in the hostage situation for private gain. It is not helpful to the hostages and our relations in the middle east,” he said.
Redman confirmed details of the report, saying the idea of a hostage exchange was raised by arms brokers “briefly and fleetingly” in the last stages of an abortive deal.
“As you can imagine, when that issue was raised, the answer was clear….There’s nothing going down of this kind,” Redman said.
Efforts by the Reagan administration in 1986 to gain release of the hostages resulted in an arms trade with Iran sparking Reagan’s most serious political crisis.
In the run-up to the November 8 Presidential election, Democratic Candidate Michael Dukakis has blasted the Republicans for the arms-for-hostages scheme while the administration has stressed no deal is in the works today.
The ABC account said Iran hoped to buy the F-Ss for which Chile could not get spare parts. Washington refused to provide them spares in protest at Santiago’s Civil rights record.
Arms dealers from Argentina, Israel and Britain as well as Iranians living in Europe offered Chile 170 million dollars, ABC said it was told by the dealers.
Under U.S. law, Chile could not transfer the planes without U.S. Permission. Chile informed the USS. Embassy of the attempt purchase, Redman said.
“The answer was in no Uncertain terms no,” he said.
“Chile’s Air Force Chief General Fernando Matthei told a press conference in Santiago that arms dealers had sought to buy the jets for Iran but said the deal was firmly rejected.
He said Chile would not sddell arms to Iran on principle. Particularly if it meant breaking agreements with Washington.
According to ABC, the Tranians later sought secret U.S. approval by offering to free some of the hostages, and indicated Tranian Parliament speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani approved the approach.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 28, 1988
