WORLD : Iran Likely to Free 3 Britons Soon
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TEHRAN — Former Iranian Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, who has strong links with radical Shiite groups, told the Tehran newspaper Abrar in an interview published today that three British hostages in Lebanon will be freed “in the next few days.”
Hopes for the release of the British hostages--Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, journalist John McCarthy and World War II pilot Jack Mann--were raised last month after the reopening of the British Embassy in Tehran.
Mohtashemi is widely believed to have set up Hezbollah (Party of God), which is believed holding Western hostages in Lebanon, when he was ambassador in Damascus shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
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