268. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Switzerland1
109041. For the Ambassador. Subject: Urgent Message to Bani-Sadr.
1. Secret (Entire text)
2. For Ambassador: Please deliver following message to Ruegg Foreign Office soonest. If immediate circuits not open to Ambassador Lang, request that, in view of urgency, message be telephoned.
3. We would appreciate Ambassador Lang’s delivering the following message as quickly as possible to President Bani-Sadr and Foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh:
4. Begin text. We want to confirm to you that last night we began to make preparations for a rescue mission to resolve the hostage crisis in Tehran. The sole purpose of this mission was to obtain the release of the hostages.
The mission was cancelled because of a malfunction and an accident involving our aircraft in a remote location in Iran, and those involved in the mission have been withdrawn from Iran. So far as we know there were no Iranian casualties.
We had commenced the preparation of this mission not because of any hostility for Iran but because of our obligation to protect the hostages.
We continue to hold the Government of Iran responsible for the safety of the hostages. End text.
- Source: Department of State, Records of David D. Newsom, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Subject Files, 1978–1981, Lot 81D154, Iran NODIS Cables Apr 1980. Secret; Flash; Nodis. Drafted by Newsom. Approved by Christopher.↩