1985
- 1985 January 3 - Abduction: Eric Wehrli, Swiss charge d'affairs in Lebanon
- 1985 January 7 - Release: Eric Wehrli.
Suggested motivation: "evidence suggests that Hezbollah deliberately targeted Wehrli in order to obtain the release of Hosein al-Talaat, Hezbollah member arrested at Zurich airport on December 18, 1984 with explosives in his possession intended for an attack on the American embassy in Rome. and
- 1985 January 8 - Abduction: Lawrence Jenco, Director, Catholic Relief Services charitable organization (American).
Declared abductor: "Islamic Jihad Organization".
- 1985 March - Abduction: Geoffrey Nash and Brian Lebick (both British).
Suggested motivation: retaliation for March 8, 1985 unsuccessful assassination attempt on Sheikh Fadlallah.
- 1985 March/April - Release: Geoffrey Nash and Brian Lebick, two weeks after abduction.
Suggested motivation: "seems to indicate that their abduction had been made on the mistaken assumption that they were American citizens."
- 1985 March 18 - Abduction: Terry A. Anderson Chief Middle East correspondent, Associated Press (American)
Suggested motivation: in retaliation for Fadlallah bombing and UNSC veto by US of resolution condemning Israel's military practices in occupied southern Lebanon.
Declared abductor: "Islamic Jihad Organization."
- 1985 March 22 - Abduction: three French embassy employees.
Suggested motivation: "considerations more aligned with Iran's foreign policy, most notably related to Frances continued arms shipments to Iraq and outstanding financial debt to Iran ... as a response to the presence of the French UNIFIL contingent in southern Lebanon and its perceived practice of failing to provide adequate protection to the local Shi'ite population."
- 1985 May 20 - Release: Husayn Farrash, Saudi Arabian consul Husayn Farrash released by captors after over a year in captivity.
- 1985 May 22 - Abduction: French journalist Jean-Paul Kaufmann and French sociologist Michel Seurat.
Suggested motivation: part of effort to obtain the release of Anis Naccache, imprisoned in France for the attempted assassination of the Shah's former Prime Minister Shapour Bakthiar in Paris in July 1980. and Naccache was "head of the Iranian assassination team and ... close personal friend... with both Ahmad Khomeini, son of the Iranian revolutionary" leader "and Mohasen Rafiqust, IRGC commander in Lebanon", and was a "close personal" friend of Imad Mughniya.
- 1985 May - Abduction: Americans David Jacobsen, American University of Beirut hospital administrator.
- 1985 June - Thomas Sutherland, agronomist
Suggested motivation: "Hezbollah focused its efforts on the release of 766 mainly Lebanese Shi'ites transferred to Israel in conjunction with it withdrawal from Lebanon, through the abduction of mainly American citizens, ... This was revealed most clearly by the
Declared abductor: "Islamic Jihad Organization."
- 1985 June 14 - Hijacking and abduction: TWA flight 847. Done immediately following the completion of Israel's departure from Lebanon.
Suggested motivation: release of 766 mainly Lebanese Shi'ites transferred to Israel in conjunction with its withdrawal from Lebanon
- 1985 August - clandestine policy of providing armaments to Iran via Israel (aka Iran-Contra Affair) initiated by U.S. government.
- 1985 mid-September - Release: Reverend Benjamin Weir, held hostage since May 1984 is freed by the "Islamic Jihad Organization".
- 1985 September 30 - Abduction: four Soviet diplomats.
Declared abductor: "Islamic Liberation Organization."
Read more about this topic: Lebanon Hostage Crisis, Timeline