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Though the group said the guerrillas were being held by the Israelis in "Zionist Nazi jails in Palestine," it was apparently referring to those who are currently held by the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army, a predominantly Christian militia, in a prison camp to the north of the border between Lebanon and Israel. Among the inmates are hundreds of Amal and Hizballah guerrillas who were captured in clashes with either the militia or the Israeli army. Israeli officials disclose privately that they have protested the poor treatment of prisoners at the camp to General Antoine Lahd, the militia's commander. Lahd replied that he was not running a hotel. In June 1985, the hijackers of a TWA jet demanded and eventually secured the release of several hundred Lebanese Shi'ites from Israel's Atlit prison in exchange for 39 passengers held hostage. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said last week that a swap this time was "out of the question."
Along with the fate of Terry Waite and the plight of the hostages in Lebanon, the U.S. was concerned last week about the detention of Wall Street Journal Correspondent Gerald Seib in Tehran. Seib was one of more than 100 foreign journalists invited by the Iranian government to visit the country and, not incidentally, to report on Iran's recent progress in the gulf war. Toward the end of a five-day visit, he was suddenly arrested and accused of being "a spy for the Zionist regime." For several days it appeared that he would be brought to trial on espionage charges. But late in the week he was turned over to the Swiss embassy, which represents American interests in Iran, and put aboard a Swissair jetliner bound for Zurich. On arrival, Seib read a statement in which he thanked the Swiss for helping to secure his release. In response to the spying charges, he declared, "I am a journalist, and that is all that I am. I was simply doing my job."
Like almost everything else in Iran today, the reasons behind Seib's arrest remain a puzzle. The incident could have resulted from the continuing power struggle between the ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, the designated successor to the aging, ailing Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the Iranian parliament. The journalists had been invited by Rafsanjani supporters, and Montazeri's men may have been trying to embarrass them by arresting the reporter.
Seib's troubles could also have been part of the wave of tension in Tehran that followed the collapse of last year's secret negotiations with the U.S. Some experts speculate that the political balance in Iran is so fragile that each faction fears the other might strike some sort of deal with the U.S. and thereby win an advantage in the ongoing power struggle. The easiest way to handle the problem, it is felt, is to make sure that nobody else makes any deal and that the prevailing chaos continues. Like the hostages in Lebanon, Seib was simply a pawn in a complex power game that is far from being resolved.