Arms Deals Made in London, Paper Says

LONDON — Secret deals to supply American weapons to Iran were arranged by a retired U.S. air force general from a “safehouse” in London, the Sunday Times of London reported.

The newspaper, citing “a Washington source intimately involved with the deal,” said that the safehouse was opened early this year and continued operating until this month.

It said that retired Air Force Gen. Richard V. Secord “was part of a team brought in at the end of last year” to arrange weapons transfers to Iran by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North.

North, a military staff member of the National Security Council, was fired last week after a disclosure that cash from the Iran deal was illegally transferred to contras fighting to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.

Six-Year Project

In another report, the Observer newspaper said Sunday that an Israeli arms dealer with London offices has been supplying Iran with U.S. weapons for the last six years with apparent official sanction from Jerusalem.

The weekly paper also said that many of the largest arms deals in which Iran obtained weapons were negotiated in London through Iranian military officers stationed at its national oil company offices in the British capital.

“With the knowledge of the British government, London has become the center for the lucrative arms trade which keeps the Iranian war machine supplied,” the newspaper said.

Thatcher Uncommunicative

A spokesman for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declined to comment on the two reports, except to say that the British government has previously said that U.S. arms sales to Iran are “a matter for the United States.”

He also reiterated Britain’s policy of not selling any exports to Iran or Iraq to “prolong or exacerbate” their six-year-long war.

The Sunday Times report said that meetings of Secord and his team, including a former CIA station chief in Iran, were held at a safehouse in London’s West End and other locations around the city without the knowledge of either the U.S. Embassy or of British intelligence.

Britain was chosen as a “convenient base” for the operation because of its central location between Iran, Israel and the United States and its good communications, the newspaper said.

‘Mishaps’ Befell Policy

It quoted its Washington source as saying that because of a series of “mishaps” in the transactions, President Reagan’s then-national security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, gave the whole project over to North shortly before resigning the post last December.

“He simply wrapped all the dirty dishes inside the tablecloth and handed it to Ollie (North) and told him to sort it out,” the report quoted an unidentified source who it said was “involved in the deal.”