163. Memorandum for the Record1
SUBJECT
- Meeting with the Algerian Ambassador to the US (U)
(S) Following are highlights of the undersigned’s meeting with Amb Sahnoun yesterday. President Benjedid left yesterday for Tripoli [Page 361] and then Tunis. Basically, Algeria has been asked by moderate Arabs to lay the groundwork for Arab League Summit with Libya and Syria, as well as other Arab states, following the Islamic Conference in Kuwait in January. Getting Iraq and Syria to participate is important. If Heads of State agree, King Fahd will hold Non-Summit Summit with Heads of State during Kuwait OIC meeting. If that meeting is productive and participants are willing, then a formal Arab League Summit would be held in Riyadh the following month.
(S/S) Re Iran: Sahnoun mentioned two interesting points. On behalf of the US, Algeria had been working directly with groups in Lebanon holding US hostages. The Algerian Ambassador to Lebanon at that time knew these groups and was given the task. He consulted with the Kuwaiti Government and these terrorist groups re release of the Dawa prisoners which Kuwait refused to consider. Apparently, they were making progress on a formula whereby Algeria publicly would take responsibility for insuring prisoners would not be executed although they would remain in prison in Kuwait, which would give these groups a pretext for releasing US hostages without concessions by US or Kuwait, when all of a sudden negotiations dried up. He is not sure if timing of this coincided with first reported arms shipments to Iran2 (will check when he is in Algiers later this month), but speculated if it does, that would mean the Iran government does have control over these groups and probably told them to stop dealing with Algeria because it was working another track (with us). Since then the Algerian Ambassador to Lebanon was reassigned to Saudi Arabia, and Algeria is not pursuing any negotiations with groups for US hostage release.
(S) Sahnoun then mentioned that he has been asked by State to work with Iran to secure release of the US citizen currently being held in Tehran.3 Using the citizen’s family as his excuse, he discussed the matter with the Iranian Ambassador to the US one-on-one. The Iran Ambassador was not optimistic. They also talked about recent US/Iranian “overtures”, which he favors (although Sahnoun believes he was speaking personally, not for the Iran government) because he believes it signals moderation and flexibility in US policy re Iran. This said, however, he stated emphatically that timing was all wrong for [Page 362] such initiatives because there really are no openings in Iran and no one for us to deal with.
(S) Re allegations of a Saudi role in Iran/US arms supply: Sahnoun thought Khashoggi might have been involved4 but discounted that the SAG would have been foolish enough to do so given the Israeli connection and potential damage to Saudi credibility if word of its participation leaked. He mentioned however that SAG may be working separate deals with Iran, possibly shipments of oil, in return for decreased Iranian military action against Saudi interests.
- Source: Reagan Library, Near East and South Asia Affairs Directorate, William J. Burns Files, Algeria 1986. Secret; Sensitive.↩
- Reference is to a secret deal between the United States and Iran whereby the United States sold weapons to Iran in exchange for Iran’s help in releasing the seven U.S. hostages being held in Lebanon. Some of the proceeds of the arms sales were then funneled to the contras, the anti-Sandinistas rebels in Nicaragua, in apparent violation of the Boland amendment to the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which prohibited the U.S. Government from overthrowing the Sandinistas. Documentation on the deal and the resulting investigation is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. XXIII, Iran-Contra Affair, 1985–1988.↩
- Not further identified.↩
- Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi businessman, was later implicated as the middleman in the arms-for-hostages deal between the United States and Iran. Documentation is scheduled for publication in Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. XXIII, Iran-Contra Affair, 1985–1988.↩
- Printed from a copy that indicates Charles signed the original.↩