State Papers

Ireland was offered secret meeting with Iranian president over Brian Keenan hostage situation

Belfast man kidnapped by Islamic Jihad in 1986 in Beirut during Lebanese civil war

Brian Keenan was lecturing in English at the American University in Beirut when he was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad on April 11th, 1986. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Brian Keenan was lecturing in English at the American University in Beirut when he was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad on April 11th, 1986. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Sun Dec 29 2024 - 00:01

Ireland was offered a “secret meeting” with the Iranian president to help in the release of Belfast man Brian Keenan who was taken hostage and held for four years by militia in Lebanon.

The previously unknown offer from the Iranian ambassador to Ireland, Bahram Ghassemi, was made during a meeting with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Seán Calleary, in March 1990.

Mr Keenan was lecturing in English at the American University in Beirut when he was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad on April 11th, 1986. His kidnappers were Shi’ite Muslims with strong links to Iran.

His was one of a large number of kidnappings carried out against westerners by various Islamic militias during the Lebanese civil war. Others included the British journalist John McCarthy, who shared a cell with Keenan for many years, the Anglican cleric Terry Waite and the British pilot Jackie Mann.

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Belfast-born Keenan was travelling on an Irish passport and the Irish government took the lead in getting him freed from captivity.

The meeting at Government Buildings took place against the backdrop of the Irish presidency of the European Community (EU) at the time. Relations between the EU and Iran were strained because the fatwa placed in 1989 on the novelist Salman Rushdie over his novel The Satanic Verses and a travel ban was placed on Iranian officials entering the EU at the time.

The Iranian ambassador was anxious to improve relations with the EU and, when the subject of Brian Keenan came up, he asked the notetakers to stop notes and treat as confidential what he was about to say.

Ghassemi stated that Iran did not have direct contact with Keenan’s kidnappers and they were being held in Lebanon not in Iran.

However, he added that the Iranian authorities were “working very hard” to obtain the hostage’s release.

“If the minister had a secret meeting with president Rafsanjani and officially asked him about Brian Keenan, then the problem could be solved very quickly,” a confidential note in the files of the Department of Foreign Affairs reveal.

Calleary reminded Ghassemi that if Iran could secure the release of the hostages “the resulting outpouring of goodwill would be of benefit to Iran”.

Keenan was therefore regarded as a British citizen though he travelled on an Irish passport. Though born into a Protestant family, he considered himself to be Irish.

Irish officials negotiating for his release went to considerable lengths to emphasise that Keenan was not British.

Ireland’s ambassador to Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Cyprus and Kuwait, Antóin Mac Unfraidh, stressed to the influential Shi’ite cleric Sheikh Fadlallah in May 1990 that Keenan was a citizen of a “small, peaceful, neutral country”.

Fadlallah told Mac Unfraidh to go talk to the Iranians to which the ambassador responded by hoping that the cleric would use his “good offices in ensuring that those who might have influence on this hostage issue would be fully aware of Keenan’s nationality, the significance of the choice of passport he has made and the positive and constructive policy the Irish government followed”.

When Mr Keenan was finally released on August 24th, 1990, the Irish government published a statement saying it was “overjoyed” and it was particularly complementary towards Iran.

“The government would like to express their deep appreciation to the government of Iran for the efforts they have made to secure his release. The Irish government note that both Iran and the European Community are intent on improving their relations.”