Iran Update: December 13, 1980

SEGRET SENSITIVE IE DEPARTMENT or STATE BRIEFING MEMORANDUM s/s @ / December 13, 1980 SECUS/SENSITIVE TO: The Acting Secretary P - Mr. Newsom FROM: NEA - Harold H. Saunders HUSPITED Iran Update - December 13, 1980 Today's Objectives -- TO continue to monitor and evaluate Iranians reactions to our position on the hostage issue. -- TO meet with the families of the hostages to brief them on the current status of our efforts to obtain the release of the hostages. -- To respond to Swiss Ambassador Lang'a recommenda- tions for observance of Christmas by the hostages in the event that they have not been released. Status of Initiatives -- Our reply to the latest Iranian request for clari- fications was sent to Algiers yesterday for transmittal to Tehran by the Algerians. It will apparently have to be forwarded Saturday morning to Foreign Minister Ben Yahia, who is reportedly in Damascus. Plans for the Algerian delegation in Tehran to meet with the Algerian Foreign Minister in Damascus, reported in yesterday's Update, have been cancelled. The Algerian delegation in Tehran is pre- pared to stay there as long as necessary in order to receive the Iranian response. According to the Algerian Charge in Washington, who has talked with Ambassador Malik by phone, the Algerian delegation in Tehran is "optimistic" about the possibility of resolving the hostage problem within a relatively short period of time, but we have received no such assessment from the Foreign Minister. DECLASSIFIED SECRET SENSITIVE Per; Rac Project RDS-3 12/13/00 ESDN; NLC-2-33-5-7-1 BY. APP NABA, DATE 7/18/2015 SECRET SENSITIVE