Terry Waite, freed from his "1,763 days in chains," called Tuesday for the release of all prisoners in the Middle East.
Former American hostage Thomas Sutherland had an emotional reunion with his family in Germany and looked forward to the day when all hostages are freed.Waite, who was taken captive in Lebanon in 1987, reiterated Tuesday that his captors said the three remaining American hostages would be released this month. He said it was hoped the two German hostages would be freed by year's end.
Official Iranian radio also said Tuesday that the release of the Americans was imminent. "The speedy release of hostages shows that the kidnap organizations have decided to close this case," Tehran radio said.
"The obstinacy of the Zionist regime or the incorrect stance and mistakes of some Western governments will have no effect on this aim," it said without elaboration.
U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar - who has led recent efforts to free the hostages - said Monday he believes all Western captives may be freed by Christmas.
"It is wrong to hold people in such a way," the 52-year-old Waite said Tuesday of the holding of hostages. "It is self-defeating, and those who do it fall well below civilized standards of behavior, no matter who they are and no matter what their nationality or what organization they belong to."
Waite reached his homeland on what he called a "typical English day" - rainy. He told reporters and well-wishers at Lyneham air base west of London that after "1,763 days in chains it is an overwhelming experience to come back and receive your greetings."
Waite, who went to Lebanon as an envoy for the Church of England in hopes of freeing hostages, said: "Those from whom I have just come can be assured that we in the church for our part will not rest until all are freed and there is justice and peace brought to people who deserve a better deal."
Waite did not refer directly to Israel or any other country. The Jewish state has been the third partner in a broad exchange of Western hostages, hundreds of Lebanese prisoners under Israeli control and Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon. At least one Israeli soldier is believed to be a captive.
There was concern in Israel that it had been left out of the latest hostage developments. Uri Slonim, an Israeli Defense Ministry lawyer and hostage negotiator, told Israel radio Waite and Sutherland "were freed without any involvement by us."
Israel's foreign minister, David Levy, urged mediators "to act without any discrimination until everyone is released, including our prisoners." And Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said he was "upset and disappointed" by the slow progress in getting information on missing Israeli soldiers.
In Germany, Sutherland, the American hostage who was freed Monday with Waite, also said the other American hostages would soon be released.
"In about a couple of weeks, all of the Americans will be freed, hopefully," the 60-year-old Sutherland said upon arrival from Syria early Tuesday.
"It feels awfully good to be here," said Sutherland, dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut, who was kidnapped June 9, 1985.
At the U.S. Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, Sutherland was reunited with his wife, two brothers and two of his three daughters. The family appeared in the rain on a hospital balcony, where Mrs. Sutherland gave her husband a bearhug.
Asked how he felt, Sutherland put up both thumbs and raised a fist like a victorious prizefighter. He said he would meet with reporters Wednesday.
In Damascus, Syria, on Monday, Waite said one of the kidnappers predicted Americans Alann Steen and Joseph Cicippio would be released "we hope within the next five days." Waite said he was told Terry Anderson, the longest-held hostage, would be freed by month's end.
Sutherland and Waite said they were kept for part of the time in the same windowless room with Anderson, 44, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, who was kidnapped March 16, 1985.
Waite's release focused attention on his relationship to Oliver North, the White House aide at the center of the arms-for-hostages scandal. While it remained unclear how much Waite knew of the arms deals with Iran, North told the BBC on Monday that news reports he gave Waite a radio transmitter to track hostages were "absolutely hogwash."
Six Westerners - the three Americans, two Germans and an Italian - remain missing in Lebanon. Another kidnapped Briton, Alec Collett, is assumed to have been killed.
Waite said in Syria that a captor could give him "no further positive information" about the German hostages. But in England Tuesday, he said that while "we were not able to get as definite a report" on the German hostages, it was "hoped that they would be freed by the end of the year."