
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990                   TAG: 9003123005
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NICOSIA, CYPRUS                                LENGTH: Short

IRANIAN CLERIC OPPOSES RELEASE OF HOSTAGES

The leader of Iran's radical faction said some of the foreigners kidnapped in Lebanon were spies and argued against releasing any of what he called the "mercenary U.S. hostages."

The comment came in an editorial signed by Ali Akbar Mohtashemi that was published Saturday in Tehran's Persian-language Kayhan and made available today in Nicosia.

Also today, the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the son of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as accusing the United States of falsely trying to imply that ties with Iran are improving.

Mohtashemi is a former interior minister who heads the faction that opposes President Hashemi Rafsanjani's openings to the West. In the editorial he attacked those who suggest Iran should help get the hostages freed.

- Associated Press

by CNB