December 1989, Page 29

Facts for Your Files: A Chronology of US-Mideast Relations

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Oct. 1: The Lebanese parliament met in Taif, Saudi Arabia in an attempt to bring an end to 15 years of civil war. The 62 surviving members of the 99-seat parliament were elected in 1972 and last convened in September 1988.

Oct. 2: Following a 45-minute White House meeting with US Secretary of State James Baker, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on Israel to open discussions with Palestinian representatives. Mubarak resisted US pressure to meet with Israeli Prime minister Yitzhak Shamir without a guarantee of results from such a meeting.

Oct. 3: Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan received a six-month prison sentence for meeting with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in violation of an Israeli law prohibiting meetings between Israeli citizens and the PLO. Nathan, who runs the off-shore radio station Voice of Peace, told reporters after his sentencing that he would "continue to fight against the law."

Oct. 4: A 30-year-old Shi'i Muslim Lebanese convicted of hijacking a Jordanian plane carrying two Americans among its passengers was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a US District Court judge. Fawaz Younis, captured when he was lured from Beirut to a yacht anchored in international waters off Cyprus by US agents, was the first person tried and convicted under new US counter-terrorism laws making it a crime to attack or hijack Americans anywhere in the world.

Oct. 5: President Bush signed a letter to Congress certifying that, "based on the information available to the United States government," Pakistan does not currently "possess a nuclear explosive device." Such certification is required by law for the continuation of US aid to Pakistan, amounting to $4 billion over a six-year period.

Oct. 6: The United States joined Israel in voting against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. Six countries abstained; the final voted was 140-2.

The Israeli Cabinet rejected an Egyptian proposal for convening Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The six Labor Party inner cabinet members voted in favor of the proposal. The tie vote that followed when the six Likud Party members voted their opposition resulted in its rejection according to Cabinet rules.

Two Swiss medical technicians working for the International Red Cross were kidnapped in the southern Lebanon port city of Sidon. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Oct. 11: US State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler confirmed that Secretary of State Baker has presented five "suggested points" to the Israeli and Egyptian governments in an effort to get Israeli-Palestinian talks underway. Tutwiler said the proposal involved "modalities" and "lists of people."

A Syrian air force pilot flew his MiG-23 fighter 35 miles into Israel undetected, landing on a remote airstrip 57 miles north of Jerusalem. Israeli officials said that Maj. Adel Bassam had asked for political asylum. Syria maintained that a mechanical failure had caused the emergency landing.

The PLO deferred for two years its application for full membership in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The US, which withdrew from UNESCO in 1984-85, citing anti-Western bias and administrative inefficiencies, threatened never to rejoin if the PLO were admitted as a member.

Oct. 16: Libyan Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the Egyptian resort of Mersa Matruh in an effort to end more than a decade of hostile relations between the two states, including a five-day border war in 1977 and Libya's prominent role in ejecting Egypt from the Arab League after the signing of the Camp David accords in 1979. A second meeting between the two leaders was planned in Tobruk, Libya.

Oct. 17: For the first time in eight years, the Soviet Union failed to back an Arab-sponsored resolution to oust Israel from the UN General Assembly. The USSR, which has applied for membership in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral agencies, cited its "new formula of supporting universal membership in all international organizations."

Oct. 22: The Lebanese parliament, meeting in Taif, Saudi Arabia, adopted by a wide majority a new national charter redistributing power between the Muslim and Christian communities. Christian Gen. Michel Aoun called the agreement "unacceptable," saying it did not provide a timetable for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Druze militia leader Walid Jumblatt and Shi'i militia leader Nabih Berri also rejected the accord because of a last-minute compromise reducing the number of seats in the new Parliament from 128 to 108.

Oct. 23: Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani called on the US to release frozen Iranian assets and help solve the case of two Iranian diplomats kidnapped in Christian-held territory during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 in return for help in freeing US hostages. At his first press conference with foreign reporters in the four months since his election, Rafsanjani said he didn't think "American companies can presently play any role" in the reconstruction of Iran's economy.

Oct. 25: US officials confirmed receipt of intelligence reports indicating that Israel has shared advanced missile technology with South Africa despite US concerns about weapons proliferation and Israeli-South African cooperation. While Israeli Prime Minister Shamir flatly denied these reports, a carefully worded Defense Ministry statement left open the possibility that some cooperation was continuing under old contracts.

Turkey announced it was imposing temporary sanctions on US military activity in Turkey because of its objections to a proposed US Senate resolution memorializing the 1.5 million Armenians said to have been killed in the Ottoman Empire era during and immediately after World War I.

Oct. 27: United Nations diplomatic officials said that the Iranian army has stopped flooding a section of the cease-fire line with Iraq. The flooding was in violation of the agreement ending rhe Iran-Iraq war and was ended on the eve of a diplomatic mission to the two countries by a UN mediator.

Oct. 31: The Israeli army was withdrawn from the Christian Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, which had been under siege for 42 days in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to break a tax revolt by the town's residents.

Prime Minister Turgot Ozal was elected to a seven-year term as president by the Turkish parliament. On this third ballot a simple majority was required for Ozal's election, which had failed to win the two-thirds majority required on the first two ballots earlier this month. All 165 opposition members boycotted the vote; the rival candidate, a member of Ozal's Motherland Party, received 14 votes, with Ozal receiving 263 votes.