ALGIERS, Algeria -- Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher held 'useful' talks Tuesday with Algerian mediators on the release of the 52 American hostages but left for Washington before the secret letter he brought with him was relayed to Iran.
Christopher and a high-level negotiating team met twice in the day with Algerian Foreign Minister Mohamed Benyahia, acting as a go-between in the negotiations to free the hostages held for 373 days.
In Washington, a U.S. official who declined to be identified said Christopher left Algiers for Washington because he expected it would be 'several days' before Iran may respond and he saw no need to wait.
The official said that, despite earlier indications, the American response had not been delivered to Tehran before Christopher left Algiers.
A State Department spokesman said, 'We don't know exactly when it (the message) will be delivered but the Algerians said they would do so soon' and promised 'prompt transmission to the government of Iran.'
That letter was hand-carried to Algiers by Christopher on Monday and the State Department said the negotiating team had been prepared to stay on in Algiers for a few days in the hopes of receiving an Iranian reply.
But after a day of back and forth communications and two lengthy sessions with Benyahia, Christopher's team boarded a special U.S. Air Force plane and headed back to Washington.
At the State Department, spokesman John Trattner formally announced the return of the Christopher mission.
'Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Minister of Foreign Affairs Benyahia of Algeria, and their respective delegations, held intensive and useful discussions on Nov. 10 and 11 concerning the U.S. response to the November 2 resolution of the Iranian Parliament,' Trattner said.
'During the meetings, Mr. Christopher and the American delegation described the background of the U.S. response and explained the implementation of the legal and financial procedures which would be involved.'
Earlier, the Iranian Embassy in Algiers ruled out the possibility of any direct talks with Christopher or other U.S. officials, saying all communications would have to go through the Algerians.
'There will never, never be direct negotiations with the Americans here or elsewhere now,' said Iranian Embassy spokesman Mahmoud Mokhtadi.
Diplomats said an envoy at the Algerian Embassy in Tehran would likely fly to Algeria with the Iranian response to the U.S. letter at an unspecified time.
In Washington, the State Departmant cautioned that the talks were in a preliminary stage and had not reached the 'phase of negotiations.' $(TEXT OMITTED FROM SOURCE$)
