Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 1992, pages 49-50

Facts For Your Files: A Chronology of U.S.-Mideast Relations

Compiled by Janet McMahon

April 1:

A report released by State Department Inspector General Sherman Funk accused Israel of "a systematic and growing pattern of unauthorized transfers" of U.S. weapons technology to third countries.

Israeli forces killed four Palestinians and wounded 50 more in Rafa in the Gaza Strip, in the worst violence since the Haram Al-Sharif massacre of October 1990. The entire Gaza Strip was then put under curfew.

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, reacting to a Security Council vote to impose U.N. sanctions, threatened to withhold oil from unfriendly countries and accused the West of launching a "crusader war."

April 2:

The State Department said it had found "no evidence that Israel had transferred" Patriot missile technology to China. The "clean bill of health" was limited to the Patriot charge, and did not cover the inspector general's report on alleged Israeli sales of U.S. technology since 1983.

The embassies of U.N. Security Council member countries were attacked by demonstrators in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The demonstrators set fire to the Embassy of Venezuela, whose U.N. representative was president of the U.N. Security Council when if voted to impose sanctions on Libya.

April 4:

The U.N. Security Council adopted a statement condemning the violence at Rafa and expressing grave concern over "the continued deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip."

Libyan leader Qaddafi rejected demands for the extradition of two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, saying "We will not let go of our sovereignty."

Guerrillas stepped up attacks on the Afghan capital of Kabul, as U.N. officials met with rebel leaders to try and end the 13-year civil war.

April 5:

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy withdrew his resignation from the ruling Likud cabinet after signing an agreement with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir giving him and his fellow Sephardim more power.

Iranian jets bombed a People's Mojaheddin rebel base in Iraq. In retaliation, hundreds of Iranian dissidents attacked Tehran's diplomatic establishments in New York, Canada, and eight European countries.

April 6:

Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Sharon named four Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem where the Israeli government is planning to house Jews.

April 7:

Addressing "fellow Zionists" at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual meeting in Washington, DC, Vice President Dan Quayle assured delegates of the U.S. commitment to Israel.

April 8:

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat survived a plane crash, which killed three crew members, in the Libyan desert. His plane, en route from Khartoum to Tunis, was missing for several hours before rescuers arrived.

April 10:

Iraq warned the U.N. that U-2 reconnaissance flights might be mistakenly shot down following Iran's incursion into Iraqi air space. In Iraq, destruction of the Al-Atheer weapons complex began under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision.

April 11:

The Afghan government accepted U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali's new peace plan calling for President Najibullah to cede power to a neutral council.

April 12:

Supporters of President Hashemi Rafsanjani were victorious over harder-line candidates in Iran's first post-revolutionary parliamentary elections.

April 14:

The U.S., Britain and France warned Iraq to stop radar tracking of reconaissance flights and the installation of antiaircraft missiles in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, or risk a military confrontation.

April 15:

Libyan flights to Italy, Egypt and Tunisia were turned back, as U.N.-imposed sanctions took effect one day after the World Court rejected Libya's appeal.

The U.S. urged Afghan rebels to stop their advance into Kabul and negotiate a political settlement with the Najibullah government.

April 16:

Afghan President Najibullah attempted to flee his country after handing over power to a new ruling council.

A U.N. boundary commission, established after the Gulf war, changed the Iraq-Kuwait boundary, giving Kuwait slightly more of the Rumaila oilfield.

April 17:

Afghan rebels and government officials began peace talks outside Kabul.

April 20:

Syria failed to get neighboring countries to give it airspace clearance for a flight to Libya.

Israeli officials announced they would allow Bir Zeit University, closed since January 1988, to reopen. In Jerusalem, police arrested Binyamin Kahane, son of the late Meir Kahane, on charges of vandalizing a mosque in the West Bank village of Kiraa.

April 21:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met in the Egyptian border town of Sidi Barani with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who traveled by car to the site.

April 22:

Algeria's banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) called upon its followers to "move from the word to the gun."

April 23:

A bipartisan congressional report put at 183,000 the number of Iraqi troops faced by allied forces at the beginning of the Gulf war, as opposed to the Pentagon estimate of over 500,000 Iraqi troops.

April 25:

After nearly 14 years of civil war, the Afghan capital of Kabul fell to Islamic rebels, as rival guerrilla groups took control of government buildings and installations.

April 26:

Mideast peace talks resumed in Washington, with an agreement to hold the next round of negotiations in Rome.

Hours after capturing Kabul, rival Afghan guerrilla groups battled for control of the capital.

April 27:

The State Department announced that Syria will lift travel restrictions on its Jewish citizens, who will be free to travel anywhere except Israel.

April 28:

Afghan guerrilla coalition leader Sibghatullah Mojaddedi was installed as his country's new president.

Palestinian delegation spokeswoman Dr. Hanan Ashrawi termed the Israeli proposal for Palestinian "pilot" municipal elections "a public relations exercise." Also in Washington, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy told Secretary of State James Baker that Israel would not attend regional peace talks on economic development and refugee issues if Palestinians from outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip were allowed to participate.

April 29:

Four Israeli Arabs charged with the killing of three soldiers at an isolated Israeli military camp were sentenced to life in prison.

April 30:

The fifth round of Arab-Israeli peace talks ended in Washington, with no date set for their resumption.

Bir Zeit University in the occupied West Bank was reopened, after having been closed for 51 months by Israeli military authorities. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 17 Palestinians in demonstrations protesting the nightly 8 p.m.-4 a.m. curfew imposed since the intifada began in December 1987.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary of State Baker defended the Bush administration's aid to Iraq prior to the invasion of Kuwait, describing it as "economic incentives to try and moderate Iraqi behavior and, if possible, to get them to support the peace process."

The State Department issued its annual report on terrorism, attributing a 22 percent increase in international terrorism incidents to "sporadic, uncoordinated and low level" acts linked to the 1991 Gulf war. The number of deaths in 1991 resulting from terrorist acts was 81, down from 200 in 1990.

May 4:

An Algerian military court sentenced to death 13 members of the banned Islamic Salvation Front who were convicted of the murder of three army soldiers.

May 5:

Afghan guerrillas led by hard-liner Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, driven out of Kabul by rival forces the previous week, attacked the capital with rockets and artillery for the second day. Interim Afghan President Mojaddedi declared he will remain in office for two years, rather than two months as he had previously stipulated.

May 6:

The Lebanese government of Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned following two days of riots caused by the country's rapidly deteriorating economy.

May 8:

A State Department report said that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories had increased 25 percent over the past year.

CIA Director Robert Gates testified before the House Banking Committee that fall 1988 intelligence reports had concluded that Iraq would not attack any of its neighbors "for the next two to three years."

May 11:

Regional Mideast peace talks began in five international capitals, with negotiations on arms control and regional security to be held in Washington, water resources in Vienna, environment in Tokyo, economic development in Brussels, and refugee issues in Ottawa. Israel reiterated its intention to boycott the latter two meetings because of the inclusion of Palestinian delegates from outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Tajikistan's President Rakhman Nabiyev agreed to the establishment of a coalition government one day after Tajik security troops fired on a crowd of demonstrators, killing at least nine.

May 12:

European Community monitors pulled out of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, saying, "We are risking too much."

The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) announced that it was phasing out food aid to Lebanon, to be discontinued by the end of 1993.

May 13:

Lebanese President Elias Hrawi appointed Rashid Solh prime minister following the resignation of Omar Karami after nationwide riots over the economic crisis.

May 19:

Iraqi Kurds turned out in massive numbers to elect a national assembly and a leader of the Kurdish liberation movement. The vote was evenly split between Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

May 21:

Israeli warplanes, helicopters and artillery attacked Shi'i villages and Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon for the third straight day, killing at least 12 people.

May 24:

Three Palestinians and an Israeli border policeman were killed, and another policeman wounded, in a gun battle in the Gaza Strip. Hours later, in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, the stabbing of a 15-year-old schoolgirl by a Gaza Palestinian set off rioting by hundreds of Jewish residents.

May 26:

Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid said Arab states "without exception" support "an easing" of sanctions on Iraq once Baghdad frees the Kuwaiti prisoners it still holds.

May 27:

An Israeli settler, Rabbi Shimon Biran, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, resulting in renewed Jewish rioting.

An Israeli convoy was ambushed in southern Lebanon following the most intense Israeli air strikes in a decade.

In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, a Serbian mortar attack killed at least 16 and wounded more than 100 people waiting in line to buy bread. The European Community imposed a partial trade embargo on Serbia and Montenegro, the two remaining states in the Yugoslav federation.

May 30:

Following two days of talks, the world's five largest arms suppliers to the Middle East—the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China—were unable to agree on a means for limiting conventional arms sales to the region.

May 31:

Israelis celebrated the 25th anniversary of the capture of East Jerusalem (June 7 by the Western calendar) in the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestinian leader Faisal Al-Husseini of East Jerusalem said, "No one is ready to celebrate this day. The atmosphere is one of sadness."

Afghan interim President Mojaddedi charged that opposition forces led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had conspired with former President Najibullah to assassinate him.

Thousands of Iranians, protesting the government's eviction of squatters, rioted in the city of Meshed, 440 miles east of Tehran. Hundreds of people were rounded up and parts of the city sealed off.

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