Iran has asked the United States for the release of a Lebanese political killer from a French jail as part of negotiations to free U.S. hostages in Lebanon, the newspaper Le Figaro reported Tuesday.
The daily, quoting Foreign Ministry sources, said President Bush had told French President Francois Mitterrand that Iranian negotiators had said the eight American hostages could be freed if convicted killer Anis Naccache was released from prison.It said Naccache's life sentence, for killing two people during a 1980 assassination attempt in Paris against former Iranian Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar, might be commuted to 20 years, and that he could be freed as early as next year.
"President Bush personally telephoned Francois Mitterrand to tell him of a development in the negotiations between Americans and Iranians to obtain the liberation of American hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon," the paper said.
Hezbollah (Party of God) is a Beirut-based extremist group with close links to Iran. Naccache, a Lebanese citizen, has declared himself its European spokesman.
"The name of Naccache was suddenly brought up by the Iranian side, who said freeing their protege (Naccache) was one of the pre-conditions to a happy end to negotiations," Le Figaro said.
The conservative daily quoted sources in the Foreign Ministry as saying freeing the American hostages in Lebanon could be an extra reason to speed Naccache's release.
A French Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the newspaper report. The United States has repeatedly denied that it negotiates with kidnappers.
The eight Americans are among 17 Westerners believed held in Lebanon by groups loyal to Iran. U.S. journalist Terry Anderson, kidnapped on March 16, 1985, is the longest-serving hostage.