Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1987, page 12

FACTS FOR YOUR FILES: A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

October 19:

Iran accused the US of launching a "full-scale war" with its attack earlier in the day on an Iranian oil platform the US said was being used as an Iranian radar station. Leaders on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf praised the US action in private but distanced themselves in public. The US gave Iranians on the platform 20 minutes to vacate and then destroyed it in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a US ship in Kuwaiti waters on Oct. 16.

October 19:

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report concluding that an Iraqi defeat is "a realistic possibility" in the Iran-Iraq war and would be "catastrophic" for Western interests. The report recommended a comprehensive United Nations arms and economic boycott on Iran.

October 22:

After meetings with leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, Secretary of State George Shultz arrived in Moscow to urge the USSR to cooperate with the US in the United Nations for an end to the Gulf war. On his first trip to the Middle East in 29 months, Shultz was unable to budge Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir from his opposition to internationally-sponsored Arab-Israeli peace talks as proposed by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Jordan's King Hussein. Shultz met three times with Shamir and three times with Peres, but never with the rival Israeli leaders together. In Jerusalem, nine Palestinian leaders invited by the US Consulate General in Jerusalem to meet with Shultz declined on grounds they had no mandate to negotiate.

October 22:

Kuwait's main offshore oil facility was struck by Silkworm missiles fired from the Iranian-occupied Fao Peninsula. It was the third attack in eight days in Kuwaiti waters. Previous attacks were against the US-owned Liberian-registered tanker Sungari and the US-registered Sea Isle City.

October 23:

US diplomats said Kuwait is seeking more advanced anti-missile systems and is redeploying its American-made Hawk anti-aircraft missiles. Bahrain also was reported to be seeking US Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to defend its oil installations from possible Iranian attacks in return for increased access to its military facilities by US Persian Gulf forces.

October 25:

Foreign ministers of six Persian Gulf Arab states concluded a two-day meeting with a statement that they would regard an attack against any member state as "an attack on all member states."

October 26:

President Reagan announced an embargo on all US imports from Iran and a ban on 14 kinds of "militarily useful" US exports to Iran.

October 27:

Amnesty International accused Syria of torturing thousands of political prisoners in recent years, including large numbers of Palestinians seized in Syria and in Syrian-controlled areas of Lebanon.

October 27:

The US charged that despite China's denials that it is selling arms to Iran, Iran had received a shipment of artillery pieces and shells from China within the past two weeks.

October 27:

The Department of State announced that two American film journalists had been killed in October in Afghanistan. THey were Lee Shapiro of New Jersey and Jim Lindeloff of California.

October 28:

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin charged in a news conference that Iraq had manipulated the US into attacking Iran in the Persian Gulf war. Rabin indicated there would be no change in Israel's own tilt toward Iran. Rabin also said that Israel had commitments from Secretary of State Shultz and Secretary of Defense Weinberger that military aid levels would remain untouched for the next two years, and would hold the US to those pledges.

October 28:

Iraq broke a week-long lull in the Gulf tanker war with air attacks on "three maritime targets: off the Iranian coast. Iran charged Iraqi planes also attacked two non-military targets in Iran and warned Iraqi civilians to seek refuge in Shiite holy cities to avoid retaliation.

October 29:

Gunmen killed two uniformed French Embassy guards and wounded a third in the Christian area of Beirut. Islamic Jihad has warned France repeatedly to halt military aid to Iraq.

October 30:

The Washington Post reported that Yosef Shapira, an Israeli minister without portfolio and a member of the small but influential National Religious Party, proposed that Israel should give $20,000 to any Arab willing to emigrate from Israel. Earlier in the year, Deputy Defense Minister Michael Dekel, a member of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Likud bloc, proposed that the 900,000 Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank be removed to Jordan. There are said to be 3.5 million Jews and 2.1 million Arabs in Israeli-controlled lands, including 1,350,000 Arabs in the occupied territories and another 750,000 within the pre-1967 borders of Israel, an overall 62-38 Jewish-Arab ratio.

October 31:

Japan told the US it would not go along with American trade sanctions on Iran, but indicated it would seek to hold imports of Iranian oil at present levels.

November 1:

A State Department official told the New York Times that the US has asked Iran for face-to-face meetings for several months, but has been rebuffed.

November 1:

Two French weeklies charged that the minister of defense in France's former Socialist government approved $120 million in sales of French arms to Iran, in violation of a French embargo. The sales were made with the knowledge of President Francois Mitterand, and some of the profits were diverted to the Socialist campaign treasury, the journals alleged. Socialist Party officials denied the charges.