Terrorist Negotiations 101 Soviet style

How does one deal with terrorists and the nations that sponsor such fanatics? We could do worse than to emulate the Soviets. Hat tip commenter bastiat who researched a post of mine a bit deeper and found this nugget.

Russia: As Middle East Heats Up, Moscow Maintains Balancing Act - RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
A BOMB FOR QOM? Russia has had direct experience in dealing with Hizballah. In 1985, extremist groups in Lebanon linked to Hizballah kidnapped four Soviet diplomats, one of which was later killed.

International media at the time reported that the kidnappers received parcels with the decapitated heads of their close relations in order to secure the diplomats’ release. However, speaking to TV-Tsentr on July 8, KGB Colonel Yury Perfiliev, who at the time headed the KGB’s Beirut station, said the media reports were just a KGB bluff aimed at pressuring the kidnappers.

But according to Perfiliev, he met with the then-leader of Hizballah, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadallah, and told him that the Soviet Union could not tolerate such a humiliation. He said that if the kidnappers were not released then the Soviet Union could accidentally fire a nuclear missile in the direction of the Iranian city of Qom, where Ayatollah Khomeini and other top Muslim clerics lived. The three remaining prisoners were subsequently released.

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3 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

If memory serves, there was a similar story at the time of the American hostage incident. At the time the “Students” were grabbing the American embassasy staff, they were reported to have briefly occupied the Soviet embassy but then left. The story that made the rounds some time later was that the Russian Ambassador told the Iranian government that if the protesters didn’t leave, “maybe no more Iran.”

They left.

1. pauldanish on April 3rd, 2007 at 1:55 am
ditto–good work, always.

2. buddy larsen on April 2nd, 2007 at 2:09 am
Cool, my first hat tip. I suppose I should start blogging now.

Keep up the good work, Pierre.

3. bastiat on October 8th, 2006 at 12:01 pm