Adviser: Dialogue to Continue With Iran

WASHINGTON -- Hours after President Reagan confirmed months of secret dealings with Iran, his national security adviser said yesterday the dialogue would continue in the hope that "we can make further progress and get the rest of the hostages home."

But the president's chief of staff said publicity over the discussions, which Reagan confirmed Thursday, may have blocked further efforts to improve relations with Iran and could "have some repercussions on our efforts to get the hostages out."

The national security adviser, Adm. John Poindexter, and Reagan's chief of staff, Donald T. Regan, made themselves available to morning news shows less than 12 hours after Reagan said he had sent small quantities of weapons to Iran not to ransom the Americans held hostage by pro-Iranian forces in Lebanon but to reopen contact with Iran, a strategically important nation governed by Islamic fundamentalists.

Reagan confirmed in a nationally broadcast Oval Office address that he engaged in secret diplomacy with Iran for 18 months and, to demonstrate his personal interest, authorized the transfer of "small amounts of defensive weapons and spare parts" to that country.

Indeed, Robert McFarlane, Poindexter's predecessor and Reagan's envoy at secret talks earlier this year in Teheran, said yesterday those arms shipments had been necessary because the "moderates" with whom he dealt "are going to be quite vulnerable."

McFarlane said he still feels further discussions with Iran could be fruitful. "If we didn't think so, the president wouldn't be pursuing it," he told the "CBS Morning News."

Regan, appearing on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America," took a more cautious view.

Asked if there would be further arms shipments to Iran, he replied:

"No. I doubt that. I think...since this story has received so much publicity that this avenue of trying to establish relationships with them [Iranian moderates] may have been blocked for a while and, unfortunately, that will also have some repercussions on our efforts to get the hostages out."

Poindexter, interviewed on NBC-TV's "Today" show, said the administration had been concerned about "the reaction in Iran to whatever it was that we might have to say" publicly about the secret discussions.

In Tehran, Iranian President Ali Khamenei said relations with the United States would not improve until Washington abandoned its "spirit of aggression and expansion."

But Khamenei was quoted as saying he had found both "right and wrong" in Reagan's speech.

Congressional Democrats, appearing also on the morning news programs, called Reagan's approval of secret overtures to Iran an "amateurish" foreign policy that makes him appear willing to trade arms for hostages while eroding U.S. credibility with its allies.

"It seems to have been operated out of the basement of the White House...the State Department cut out, the Defense Department cut out, almost in an amateurish way," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

The president, who said his address was prompted by widespread misinformation about his actions, acknowledged he had sent McFarlane on a secret, four-day mission to Iran last spring "to raise the diplomatic level of contacts" with Iranian officials.

"Since then," Reagan said in his hastily arranged 12-minute speech, "the dialogue has continued, and step-by-step progress continues to be made."

He claimed erroneous reports and "unprecedented speculation" about a connection between arms shipments and the release of three American hostages in Lebanon "have been potentially dangerous" to the remaining captives "and destructive of the opportunity before us."

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, said after Reagan's speech his government has "made certain conditions" for a continuation of the diplomatic efforts, and if they are met, a "mutual understanding will develop."