275. Letter From President Carter to Australian Prime Minister Fraser1
I greatly appreciate your sympathetic and supportive letter of April 29, 1980,2 and I am grateful also for your strong and consistent public backing in the very difficult matter of Iran.
You are right about the need to reinforce both the reality and the public perception that the US and the European allies are united behind a common strategy. The decision of the European Community (as well as that of your own government) to proceed with the imposition of economic sanctions if the hostages are not released by May 17 is a heartening example of such unity.
That unity is being reinforced on our part by a series of meetings with our allies, leading up to the Venice meeting in late June.3 This week, for example, both Lord Carrington and NATO Secretary General Luns have had consultations here in Washington. I have met with both of them. Ed Muskie in his new role as Secretary of State will join Harold Brown at the reinforced Defense Planning Committee meeting of NATO in Brussels, May 13–14, which will also be attended by the other NATO Foreign Ministers. Immediately thereafter, the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Austrian State Treaty in Vienna will provide another opportunity for major consultations. In late June, I will be making a state visit to Italy, in addition to attending the Venice Economic Summit. Given these contacts and the Venice meeting I do not feel, as I said in my press conference of April 29,4 that a four-power summit is required at this time.
We continue to be convinced that economic sanctions, supported broadly by Iran’s major trading partners, will have a constructive impact on the present situation. The decision to impose sanctions on May 17, in accord with the January 13 draft United Nations Security [Page 910] Council Resolution5 (in which other countries such as Portugal, Norway, Canada, Greece, and Switzerland have joined Australia and the EC Nine), will emphasize to Iran the growing cost its action will exact on its hopes of becoming a strong, stable, and independent nation, and will underscore its increasing isolation from the non-communist world. At the same time, we are actively pursuing opportunities for discussion that could lead to a peaceful solution of the crisis. Following the imposition of sanctions, we will simply have to wait for them to take effect, while we carry on parallel efforts to reopen our dialogue with the Iranians through selected intermediaries.
I can assure you that we are as conscious as our allies of the potential dangers of the Iran crisis in terms of the security of the area, that we have implemented a series of high level exchanges and meetings that will, I believe, enable us to harmonize our policies, and that we will continue to press for a peaceful solution to this problem.
I value your views on this matter as on others, and look forward to hearing from you.
Warmest personal regards.
Sincerely,
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Brzezinski Office File, Country Chron File, Box 4, Australia, 1980. No classification marking. Brzezinski transmitted the letter to Carter under a May 8 covering memorandum, requesting Carter’s authorization to transmit the letter telegraphically. (Ibid.)↩
- See Document 274.↩
- Carter traveled to Italy June 19–24 for a State visit and to attend the Economic Summit June 21–24.↩
- See Public Papers: Carter, 1980–81, Book I, pp. 792–808.↩
- The resolution failed to pass because of the Soviet Union’s negative vote. See Yearbook of the United Nations, 1980, pp. 309–311.↩