Hostage-taking is an old practice that has become all too common in modern times as states and non-state actors try to advance a variety of goals.
All hostage situations differ in specific facts and context. Yet parallels can be drawn between the efforts to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the diplomacy that ended the most infamous hostage crisis in American memory – the seizure of 52 U.S. diplomats who were kept prisoner for 444 days in revolutionary Iran.
Algeria’s work as the intermediary in that crisis remains a model for conducting hostage diplomacy. The author, a journalist who covered that diplomacy for ABC News and later became a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, learned much about the ingredients for successful hostage mediation from direct observation and discussions with Algerian diplomats at the time. The author also covered other hostage stories over the decades, including ones in which friends and colleagues were held captive, and served as an embassy spokesperson in several such crises. Following is an account of the author’s Algeria experience.
The usually opaque visages of the two Concorde passengers showed undisguised surprise as I entered the tightly spaced cabin. I had covered U.S.-Iran hostage negotiations for weeks in Algiers as part of an ABC News global cell preparing a documentary to air whenever the crisis would end. Chasing reliable tips, I boarded the supersonic Paris-to-Washington D.C. flight on Dec. 26, 1980.
More than a year had already passed since Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. Multiple efforts – diplomatic as well as military – had failed to secure the release of the U.S. hostages. Algeria’s government announced on Nov. 3, 1980, that it would serve as the intermediary between Iran and the U.S., which had severed diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic in the wake of the embassy seizure. It took 79 more days until the 52 Americans were finally freed in the last hours of Jimmy Carter’s presidency just before Ronald Reagan took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981.
On that first short trans-Atlantic flight, Algeria’s ambassador to the U.S., Redha Malek, and the Algerian ambassador to Iran, Abdulkarim Gheraib, agreed to speak briefly. Our initial Concorde conversation was the first of many with the ambassadors not only in the stratosphere but on three continents over subsequent decades. Following are some of the lessons conveyed, with their insights, taken from my notes, italicized.
An unbiased intermediary with connections to both adversaries is optimal. Algeria had diplomatic relations with both the U.S. and Iran and had not taken sides with either. We Algerians are completely dedicated to fulfilling our nation’s diplomatic mission as neutral intermediary, and mediator.
One chief intermediatory must take charge of negotiations. After a year of failed efforts, the U.S. and Iran had learned that “too many cooks spoil the broth.” We Algerians work together as one team. We are entrusted as messengers, unbiased interpreters to coordinate negotiations between two adversarial nations.
The intermediaries should be professional envoys who are credible, dedicated, trustworthy and ethical. In the global diplomatic arena, Algeria was known for professional diplomacy and geopolitical nonalignment. This made it possible for both the U.S. and Iran to accept Algeria as the trusted go-between.
The intermediaries should devote their full attention to the negotiations and be diplomatic, tenacious yet patient, detail-oriented, and precise. On Dec. 31, 1980, the author, after covering Algeria-U.S. meetings in Washington, was onboard another Concorde, following the two Algerians to Paris. This diplomatic mission is extremely delicate, requiring careful balance, our complete attention. We are hopeful our efforts will bring resolution. On the next day, New Year’s 1981, both Algerian diplomats flew to Iran to deliver messages from their meetings in Washington. Their focus on crisis resolution was total.
Other experts are needed to augment the main negotiators. By the beginning of January 1981, other diplomats, and specialists from both the U.S. and Iran made Algiers their base of operations. Algerian officials, led by Foreign Minister Mohamed-Seddik Benyahia and Ambassadors Gheraib and Malek, and Algerian Central Bank Chairman Mohammed Seghir Mostefai, worked separately with the Americans and Iranians. Negotiations centered on the U.S. demand for the release of all hostages and Iran’s demand for the release of a significant portion of monetary assets frozen in the U.S. after the embassy takeover.
The agreement details need to be precise, ideally requiring the release of all hostages at once, not phased to avoid last-minute glitches. On Jan. 19, 1981, the Algiers Accords for Hostages Release was signed separately by senior representatives of the U.S. and Iran. Then Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher signed the agreement in the U.S. ambassador to Algeria’s residence. Once the Iranians had also signed and Algeria confirmed the signatures, the signal was relayed to Iran to allow an Algerian plane with all American hostages on board to leave Tehran for Algiers.
Diplomacy resolved the crisis, not military action. On Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1981, at 3 a.m. an Air Algerie plane landed in Algiers with the 52 Americans for handover to U.S. officials and transfer to a U.S. Air Force plane. Global news media covered the historic moment at Algiers airport and subsequent coverage focused on the former hostages’ arrival at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany.
In the U.S. and around the world, there was split-screen television live coverage of Reagan’s inauguration and the hostages’ release.
Two days later, still working as ABC News’ “Algerian Connection,” the author interviewed Ambassador Malek for our documentary at his ambassadorial residence in Washington. Diplomacy with diplomatic negotiations is always the ideal solution, not military action, or other violent confrontation. We believe our work has demonstrated the value of diplomacy in conflict. His concluding words about diplomatic work were important, but, unfortunately, not on camera.
Diplomacy can be covered as a dramatic news story. ABC News’ award-winning documentary “America Held Hostage: The Secret Negotiations” aired in four parts. The first was on Jan. 22, and the final three parts on Jan. 28 that year. Though Algeria’s role was given relatively little airtime in the final documentary, Algerian diplomacy was essential to the non-violent, successful conclusion to a story that had held world attention for 444 days and that continues to influence U.S. and global perceptions about Iran.
More than four decades later, Algeria’s model as a successful, neutral diplomatic intermediary still provides important lessons for hostage diplomacy today.
Elizabeth (Liz) Colton, Ph.D., a former Emmy Award-winning journalist, and later diplomat, currently teaches Diplomacy & the Media for UNITAR and partner international universities’ global online courses. She serves as board chair of Reporters Without Borders-Reporters Sans Frontieres RSF-USA/North America and also as a Diplomat & Journalist in Residence at Warren Wilson College.
The “Algerian Connection”: Lessons Learned from Covering the Iran Hostage Crisis
By Elizabeth (Liz) Colton
Middle East & North Africa
Hostage-taking is an old practice that has become all too common in modern times as states and non-state actors try to advance a variety of goals.
All hostage situations differ in specific facts and context. Yet parallels can be drawn between the efforts to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the diplomacy that ended the most infamous hostage crisis in American memory – the seizure of 52 U.S. diplomats who were kept prisoner for 444 days in revolutionary Iran.
Algeria’s work as the intermediary in that crisis remains a model for conducting hostage diplomacy. The author, a journalist who covered that diplomacy for ABC News and later became a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, learned much about the ingredients for successful hostage mediation from direct observation and discussions with Algerian diplomats at the time. The author also covered other hostage stories over the decades, including ones in which friends and colleagues were held captive, and served as an embassy spokesperson in several such crises. Following is an account of the author’s Algeria experience.
The usually opaque visages of the two Concorde passengers showed undisguised surprise as I entered the tightly spaced cabin. I had covered U.S.-Iran hostage negotiations for weeks in Algiers as part of an ABC News global cell preparing a documentary to air whenever the crisis would end. Chasing reliable tips, I boarded the supersonic Paris-to-Washington D.C. flight on Dec. 26, 1980.
More than a year had already passed since Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. Multiple efforts – diplomatic as well as military – had failed to secure the release of the U.S. hostages. Algeria’s government announced on Nov. 3, 1980, that it would serve as the intermediary between Iran and the U.S., which had severed diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic in the wake of the embassy seizure. It took 79 more days until the 52 Americans were finally freed in the last hours of Jimmy Carter’s presidency just before Ronald Reagan took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981.
On that first short trans-Atlantic flight, Algeria’s ambassador to the U.S., Redha Malek, and the Algerian ambassador to Iran, Abdulkarim Gheraib, agreed to speak briefly. Our initial Concorde conversation was the first of many with the ambassadors not only in the stratosphere but on three continents over subsequent decades. Following are some of the lessons conveyed, with their insights, taken from my notes, italicized.
An unbiased intermediary with connections to both adversaries is optimal. Algeria had diplomatic relations with both the U.S. and Iran and had not taken sides with either. We Algerians are completely dedicated to fulfilling our nation’s diplomatic mission as neutral intermediary, and mediator.
One chief intermediatory must take charge of negotiations. After a year of failed efforts, the U.S. and Iran had learned that “too many cooks spoil the broth.” We Algerians work together as one team. We are entrusted as messengers, unbiased interpreters to coordinate negotiations between two adversarial nations.
The intermediaries should be professional envoys who are credible, dedicated, trustworthy and ethical. In the global diplomatic arena, Algeria was known for professional diplomacy and geopolitical nonalignment. This made it possible for both the U.S. and Iran to accept Algeria as the trusted go-between.
The intermediaries should devote their full attention to the negotiations and be diplomatic, tenacious yet patient, detail-oriented, and precise. On Dec. 31, 1980, the author, after covering Algeria-U.S. meetings in Washington, was onboard another Concorde, following the two Algerians to Paris. This diplomatic mission is extremely delicate, requiring careful balance, our complete attention. We are hopeful our efforts will bring resolution. On the next day, New Year’s 1981, both Algerian diplomats flew to Iran to deliver messages from their meetings in Washington. Their focus on crisis resolution was total.
Other experts are needed to augment the main negotiators. By the beginning of January 1981, other diplomats, and specialists from both the U.S. and Iran made Algiers their base of operations. Algerian officials, led by Foreign Minister Mohamed-Seddik Benyahia and Ambassadors Gheraib and Malek, and Algerian Central Bank Chairman Mohammed Seghir Mostefai, worked separately with the Americans and Iranians. Negotiations centered on the U.S. demand for the release of all hostages and Iran’s demand for the release of a significant portion of monetary assets frozen in the U.S. after the embassy takeover.
The agreement details need to be precise, ideally requiring the release of all hostages at once, not phased to avoid last-minute glitches. On Jan. 19, 1981, the Algiers Accords for Hostages Release was signed separately by senior representatives of the U.S. and Iran. Then Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher signed the agreement in the U.S. ambassador to Algeria’s residence. Once the Iranians had also signed and Algeria confirmed the signatures, the signal was relayed to Iran to allow an Algerian plane with all American hostages on board to leave Tehran for Algiers.
Diplomacy resolved the crisis, not military action. On Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1981, at 3 a.m. an Air Algerie plane landed in Algiers with the 52 Americans for handover to U.S. officials and transfer to a U.S. Air Force plane. Global news media covered the historic moment at Algiers airport and subsequent coverage focused on the former hostages’ arrival at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany.
In the U.S. and around the world, there was split-screen television live coverage of Reagan’s inauguration and the hostages’ release.
Two days later, still working as ABC News’ “Algerian Connection,” the author interviewed Ambassador Malek for our documentary at his ambassadorial residence in Washington. Diplomacy with diplomatic negotiations is always the ideal solution, not military action, or other violent confrontation. We believe our work has demonstrated the value of diplomacy in conflict. His concluding words about diplomatic work were important, but, unfortunately, not on camera.
Diplomacy can be covered as a dramatic news story. ABC News’ award-winning documentary “America Held Hostage: The Secret Negotiations” aired in four parts. The first was on Jan. 22, and the final three parts on Jan. 28 that year. Though Algeria’s role was given relatively little airtime in the final documentary, Algerian diplomacy was essential to the non-violent, successful conclusion to a story that had held world attention for 444 days and that continues to influence U.S. and global perceptions about Iran.
More than four decades later, Algeria’s model as a successful, neutral diplomatic intermediary still provides important lessons for hostage diplomacy today.
Elizabeth (Liz) Colton, Ph.D., a former Emmy Award-winning journalist, and later diplomat, currently teaches Diplomacy & the Media for UNITAR and partner international universities’ global online courses. She serves as board chair of Reporters Without Borders-Reporters Sans Frontieres RSF-USA/North America and also as a Diplomat & Journalist in Residence at Warren Wilson College.
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