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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991                   TAG: 9103150097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

TERRY ANDERSON ENDS SIXTH YEAR IN CAPTIVITY

As Terry Anderson ends his sixth year in captivity, his friends and family mounted a lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill on Thursday, their hopes buoyed by fresh diplomatic signs that he and other hostages in Lebanon may soon be freed.

"The news from the Middle East is great," said Peggy Say, Anderson's sister who has helped organize the lobbying effort and a ceremony today to honor Anderson, 43, the chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press.

"We know this is our last ceremony. That's why we planned it that way - as a tribute," she said.

Say's positive feelings stemmed from reports from Syria, where Secretary of State James Baker raised the issue of the six American hostages with Syrian President Hafez Assad and members of his inner circle.

Asked if there has been any progress on the hostages, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa responded: "We have the feeling that the hostage issue has to be resolved."

The Syrians would exert "maximum effort" to help win the hostages' release, he said. "We are not pessimistic that we will succeed."

The Syrian army controls the region of Lebanon where the hostages are thought to be held by pro-Iranian Muslim Shiites known as the Hezbollah.

ABC News reported, meanwhile, that Iran wants Israel to free a Muslim cleric in exchange for Tehran's help in securing the release of the Western hostages in Lebanon.

The network said Baker learned about Iran's request that Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid be freed on his trip through the Middle East. Obeid, who is allied with the Hezbollah, was abducted by Israeli commandos in 1989.

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher reaffirmed the U.S. position that the United States is "willing to talk directly to authoritative representatives of Iran on the issues of concern to both our countries, including the hostages."

Iran is "well aware" that any substantial improvement in relations depends on the release of the hostages and a "cessation of Iranian support for terrorism," he said. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran, whose diplomatic interests are represented by the Swiss.

Since the end of the Persian Gulf War, U.S. officials have promised to pursue freedom for the hostages with renewed vigor.

Anderson is the longest-held American hostage. He was captured on March 16, 1985, on a street in Beirut. The other Americans are Thomas Sutherland, Joseph Cicippio, Jesse Turner, Alann Steen and Edward Austin Tracy.

by CNB