Word: swap
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...some minds the linkage began very early. In July 1985, Israeli businessmen who had been in contact with Iranian officials told Shimon Peres, then Israel's Prime Minister, that they thought a swap of arms for U.S. hostages could be arranged. Peres presumably communicated that information promptly to Ronald Reagan. The story in Jerusalem is that the White House designated Poindexter to look into the idea, and he named North as liaison with Israel. In any case, the Israeli businessmen were authorized by Peres to resume contacts and strike a deal with the Iranians. The executives turned to Adnan Khashoggi...
There was some speculation that Waite's negotiations this time involved hostages other than Americans, and perhaps went beyond Lebanon. According to a knowledgeable Israeli source, Assad was attempting a "multinational swap," a kind of coordinated release involving not just U.S. hostages but possibly those from Britain, France and Italy, and even an Israeli airman held in Lebanon. In Israel, the counterpart would presumably be the freeing of some or all of 108 Shi'ites being held in southern Lebanon by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia. It was not clear whether a grand swap would also involve other...
Kuwait has flatly refused to cooperate in any such trade, and last December denied Waite's application for a visa. Washington has declined to bring pressure on the Kuwaitis to reconsider. Evidently as part of an effort to push the Reagan Administration to force a swap, Islamic Jihad over the past 13 months has released two of its American prisoners, Father Jenco, and the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian missionary. Both had been held captive for more than a year. Waite had a hand in the two releases, though he has never spelled out his exact role...
Waite's latest mission to Beirut is his most difficult, especially if it involves a multinational swap that must await the approval of several conflicting parties. He has proved in the past that he has the patience, stamina and staying power needed to hold hostage negotiations. His success in winning the release of Jacobsen sparked new hope that he will finally be able to conclude the long Beirut hostage ordeal...
...return to Moscow to lay flowers once again on the grave of his ancestor, about whom he is planning a book. But Daniloff insisted that, unlike Zakharov, he had come through the experience with his honor unsmudged. Yet was not the complex arrangement merely a fig leaf disguising the swap of Daniloff for a spy? "In my case," Daniloff responded, "the investigation into the charges against me was concluded. There was no trial, and I left as an ordinary free American citizen. In Zakharov's case, there was a trial, and he received a sentence. I do not believe that...