The World - News from May 19, 1988

President Francois Mitterrand said France will “keep its word” and restore diplomatic relations with Iran now that the last three French hostages held by pro-Iranian kidnapers in Beirut have been released. The Socialist president told a Cabinet meeting he had decided to honor a pledge to restore ties with Tehran that former Premier Jacques Chirac made after diplomats Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann were released May 4 after three years of captivity. On welcoming the hostages, Chirac said that Iran had intervened to obtain their release and that diplomatic relations between the two countries--severed last summer--were now possible.