Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2002, pages 99-101

Facts For Your Files

A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

Compiled by Sara Powell and Janet McMahon

Jan. 1: As Israeli President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly disagreed on policy toward the Palestinians, Israeli tanks raided a village near Jenin.

•Egyptian state television launched a Hebrew-language program.

•Iran denied U.S. allegations of ties with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

•U.S. Marines secured an abandoned Taliban position west of Kandahar.

•Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cut support to non-indigenous Islamic groups fighting in Kashmir.

Jan. 2: The Pentagon announced that Taliban intelligence chief Qari Ahmadullah had been killed by U.S. bombing on Dec. 27.

•The World Jewish Congress announced a reorganization to fight global terrorism.

•Following an East Jerusalem press conference, Palestinian human rights activist Dr. Mustafa Barghouti was arrested twice and beaten.

• Israeli Prime Minister Sharon announced he would seek re-election in 2003.

•The first multinational peacekeeping troops arrived in Afghanistan.

•As Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers met in Nepal, suspected Islamists killed one policeman and wounded 24 in Kashmir.

Jan. 3: U.S. envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni returned to the Middle East.

•Israel seized in international waters the ship Karine-A, allegedly carrying 50 tons of Iranian-made weapons to Palestine.

•Israeli tanks withdrew from Jenin, but continued to encircle Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters.

•As U.S. warplanes bombed an alleged al-Qaeda compound near Khost in eastern Afghanistan, Kabul’s interim government released more than 3,000 Taliban prisoners.

•Pakistan arrested the former Taliban ambassador, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef.

•The State Department said the U.S. had not decided on anti-terror action in Somalia.

Jan. 4: While U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni met with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, Israeli tanks and troops raided the West Bank village of Tel, killing a Palestinian policeman.

•Syria took its seat on the U.N. Security Council.

•A special forces soldier became the first U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan.

Jan. 5: Leaving a note expressing affinity with Osama bin Laden, a Florida teen crashed a small plane into a Tampa office building.

•Israel banned Yasser Arafat from traveling to Bethlehem for Orthodox Christmas.

Jan. 6: U.S. military police were sent to prepare a prison camp for captured Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

•As Prime Minister Sharon accused Yasser Arafat of personally ordering weapons found on the Karine-A, and the PA arrested six members of Islamic Jihad in Jenin, U.S. envoy Gen. Zinni left Israel.

•Uzbek military intelligence officers told nine visiting U.S. senators that Osama bin Laden had escaped into Pakistan.

•Indian and Israeli officials met in Jerusalem to discuss anti-terror techniques.

Jan. 7: U.S. President George W. Bush urged Pakistani President Musharraf to crack down on Islamists.

•Nine U.S. senators arrived in Afghanistan, to meet with interim leader Hamid Karzai and U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

•Turkey accused Saudi Arabia of destroying Ottoman cultural heritage by tearing down the Al Ajyad Castle to build a hotel complex for pilgrims to Mecca.

•Bosnia asked the U.S. to extradite former Ambassador to the U.N. Muhamed Sacirbey to face charges of embezzlement.

•Singapore officials said 15 alleged al-Qaeda members it had arrested planned to bomb the U.S. embassy and American businesses.

•The Shanghai Cooperation Organization—China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan—stated that Afghanistan should be free of foreign influence.

Jan. 8: U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld supported Israel’s seizure of the Karine-A, and the State Department called allegations of Palestinian weapons smuggling credible.

•The Justice Department ordered the arrests of some 6,000 Middle Eastern men for allegedly ignoring deportation orders.

•The Organization of the Islamic Conference asked the U.N. to investigate the deaths of hundreds of non-Afghan Taliban fighters.

•Israeli Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit called Palestinian leader Arafat a cheat and a liar.

•Attempting to arrest a Hamas member, Palestinian security forces injured three bystanders in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, administered by the U.N., which protested the incursion.

•As Kabul asked the U.S. to better coordinate its targets, the U.N. began distributing food in Herat amid reports of widespread starvation.

Jan. 9: Human rights activists from Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh urged the U.N. to investigate radical Islamism.

•Germany said the U.S. led anti-terror coalition did not plan to attack Iraq.

•After two Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers were killed, and two wounded, in an attack on an Israeli army post on the Gaza border, Israel destroyed three Palestinian naval police stations in southern Gaza.

•Israel banned construction on a controversial mosque in Nazareth.

•Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Iraq was not opposed to dialogue with the U.S. and would welcome any Arab investigation into missing Kuwaiti soldiers.

•Interim Afghan leader Karzai called for the creation of a national army and banned armed men from the streets.

Jan. 10: Amid growing tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir,President Bush met with Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani in the White House.

•President Bush warned Iran not to undermine the Afghan interim government.

•Jewish Defense League Chairman Irv Rubin and member Earl Krugel were indicted in a federal court for plotting to bomb a California mosque and the office of Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA).

•An advance team of U.S. soldiers arrived in the Philippines to train local soldiers to fight Islamist groups.

•Israel suspended relations with the Palestinian Authority and, in Gaza, destroyed 58 homes in Rafah refugee camp, leaving 700 Palestinians homeless, and demolished the nearby airport.

Jan. 11: The U.S. flew 20 chained, shaven, and hooded Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners of war to a prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

•The U.S. resumed peacemaking efforts in Sudan.

•President Abdiqassim Hassan accused the U.S. of terrorizing Somalia.

•As 16 people, including two Pakistani children, were killed in heavy border fire, India warned Pakistan it was ready for war.

Jan. 12: Palestinian officials said only one man had been arrested in connection with the Karine-A, not three as announced two days earlier.

•In a nationally televised address, Pakistan’s President Musharraf promised his government would not support terrorists or allow them to use Pakistan as a base for attacks on other countries, and banned five militant groups.

Jan. 13: Israeli cabinet members criticized the army’s incursion into the Rafah refugee camp and its demolition of some 60 homes.

•Australian television aired a six-hour video it obtained from a U.S. special forces soldier in Kabul showing al-Qaeda militants planning an assassination of world leaders and an attack on a motorcade in Washington, DC.

•French police arrested Abderahmane Ameuroude and Mehrez Aziz, suspects in the September murder of Afghan Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masoud.

Jan. 14: The State Department voiced support for an Israeli crackdown on arms smugglers, as Israeli officials accused the Palestinian Authority and Iran of forming a strategic alliance.

•As Israel razed nine Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and assassinated Palestinian militia leader Raed Karmi in the West Bank town of Tulkarm, members of the Israeli-Palestinian Coalition for Peace announced a joint initiative aimed at reviving peace talks.

•The Bush administration announced it had urged Israel to delay selling to India weapons technology, including the U.S.-funded Arrow-2 missile defense system, in light of the current crisis with Pakistan.

•Returning from a tour of Central Asia and Afghanistan, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Iraqi President Saddam Hussain must be removed from power, if necessary by the U.S. alone.

•As the Pentagon said the bombing of a major al-Qaeda training compound in eastern Afghanistan was nearly complete, 30 more Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees arrived in Cuba.

•Pakistan reopened its embassy in Kabul and pledged $100 million to help rebuild Afghanistan, as U.N. aid officials implored Islamabad to allow more than 13,000 Afghan refugees into a border camp.

•The U.S. Embassy in Sana’a tightened security after Yemen passed on information suggesting “an increased terrorist threat.”

• Tenured computer science professor Sami Al-Arian announced he would fight the University of South Florida’s decision to fire him as an alleged security risk.

Jan. 15: As two Israelis were killed in gun attacks in the West Bank, Fatah and Hamas said they would continue to observe a month-long cease-fire despite the assassination of Raed Karmi. Palestinian police later arrested Ahmed Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and wanted by Israel for the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

•A U.S. official insisting on anonymity told the Washington Times that American intelligence had helped Israel track down the Karine-A. Israel denied the report.

•Foreign media organizations jointly issued a statement criticizing Israel’s refusal to renew official press accreditations of most of their Palestinian staff members.

•The bombing campaign against Afghanistan entered its 101st day.

•The World Bank confirmed an estimated cost of $15 billion to rebuild Afghanistan.

•As Pakistani security forces detained nearly 2,000 militants in a two-day crackdown, President Musharraf promised to respond instantly to any move by India to ease border tensions.

•U.S.- and Swiss-mediated talks on ending Sudan’s civil war opened in Switzerland.

Jan. 16: A federal grand jury charged Richard Reid, who allegedly tried to ignite explosives in his shoes on a Dec. 22 American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, with being a member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization.

•As Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said he believed Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar were still in Afghanistan, U.S. military officials said many Pashtun leaders in eastern Afghanistan were reluctant to cooperate in hunting down al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

•U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson said that the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters being held at Guantanamo airbase in Cuba were prisoners of war and entitled to full protection as such, rather than “illegal combatants,” as maintained by the U.S.

•Following a meeting in Islamabad with President Musharraf, Secretary of State Colin Powell praised Pakistan’s crackdown on extremists and urged direct discussions with India.

•Faramarz Kashi became the second of 10 Iranian Jews convicted in July 2000 of spying for Israel to be released from prison.

Jan. 17: Israel’s Labor Party voted overwhelmingly to remain in Prime Minister Sharon’s coalition government.

•Former Palestinian Authority policeman Abed Hassouna opened fire on bat mitzvah celebrants in the northern Israel town of Hadera, killing six people and injuring 30.

•Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected a Palestinian state and said Yasser Arafat must be overthrown.

•Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended that U.N. peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon be reduced from 3,500 to 2,000 by the end of the year.

•A bomb exploded near state government headquarters in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing one person and injuring eight others.

•The U.S. and India signed an agreement to protect technology secrets involved in any weapons deals beteen the two countries.

•In Kabul, Secretary of State Powell announced that the U.S. Embassy there had been restored to full status.

•British authorities charged two Algerian men arrested in November with being members of al-Qaeda.

Jan. 18: In the West Bank, Israeli F-16 warplanes destroyed a Palestinian Authority compound in Tulkarm, killing a Palestinian policeman and wounding some 20 others, and Israeli tanks moved to within 50 yards of President Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters.

•U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said that al-Qaeda fighters had crossed into Iran, and charged Tehran with denying the U.S. access to detainees.

•Defying a high court ruling, Bosnia turned over to the U.S. six Algerians suspected of terrorist links.

•An international Red Cross team began its evaluation of U.S. treatment of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Jan. 19: Israeli forces blew up the offices of the Voice of Palestine radio station.

•The U.S. military announced it would no longer require, but only “strongly encourage,” female troops serving in Saudi Arabia to cover themselves with an abaya.

Jan. 21: In its first reoccupation of a Palestinian-controlled city since the signing of the Oslo accords, Israeli forces seized control of the major West Bank town of Tulkarm.

•On a visit to the UAE, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers told Abu Dhabi Television that U.S. forces “probably will be in the Gulf for some time to come.”

•The Red Cross began overseeing Iran’s two-day handover of 695 Iraqi military prisoners from the Iran-Iraq war, which ended in 1988, and the 1991 Gulf war.

Jan. 22: Heavily armed gunmen attacked the American Center in Calcutta, killing four Indian policemen, and wounding 20 people.

•As Washington remained silent, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Israel’s reoccupation of Tulkarm and its destruction of the Voice of Palestine offices. Israeli forces began withdrawing to the outskirts of Tulkarm following a 30-hour occupation.

•Hamas said Israel’s pre-dawn raid in Nablus and killing of four alleged Hamas members opened the door to a “fierce war” against Israel. Hours later, Palestinian police shot and killed a demonstrator in Nablus, and a Palestinian gunman wounded 16 Israelis in a rush-hour shooting at a Jerusalem bus stop.

•Donor nations attending a conference in Tokyo pledged more than $4.5 billion toward the rebuilding of Afghaniistan.

•Yemen announced it had shut down the Dar Al-Hadith Institute, a religious study center, and would deport some 80 students and teachers arrested for overstaying their visas.

•India’s cabinet adopted the International Atomic Energy Agency convention on the physical protection of nuclear material requiring the security and safety of material during international transport.

Jan. 23: The appeal hearing for former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, opened in the Netherlands.

•Israeli warplanes attacked alleged Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon after rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israeli occupation troops in the Shebaa Farms area.

•Knesset speaker Avraham Burg said he would accept an invitation to speak before the Palestinian legislative council in Ramallah despite Prime Minister Sharon’s opposition.

•Indian police detained five people, including three madrassa teachers, in connection with the attack on the U.S. cultural center in Calcutta.

•U.S. Army special forces attacked an al-Qaeda cell in southern Afghanistan, killing 21 and capturing 27 Taliban fighters. Afterward, villagers in Oruzgan discovered the charred bodies of more than a dozen men shot and burned in one of the compounds and two bodies with hands tied behind their backs.

•Pakistan agreed to give the U.S. full access to Karachi International Airport as a center for Afghan peacekeeping operations.

•Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was reported missing in Karachi after failing to return from a meeting with two people claiming to have contacts in the terrorist network.

•The trial of Bosnian Serb Gen. Momir Talic and Radoslav Brdjanin on charges of committing war crimes in Krajina opened in The Hague.

•A week before the start of joint training exercises, Filipina President Gloria Arroyo promised no U.S. troops would engage in combat against the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.

•In a raid on his jungle base, Indonesian troops shot and killed Abdullah Syafi, military commander of the separatist Free Aceh Movement, his wife and five other guerrillas.

Jan. 24: The White House backed Israel’s house arrest in Ramallah of Yasser Arafat.

•Two days after telling Belgian investigators that he would testify on Ariel Sharon’s role in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, former Lebanese Forces militia leader Elie Hobeika was killed by a 22-pound car bomb.

•As U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi air defense targets for the third time in a week and Washington warned Baghdad that time was running out for it to allow the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Moscow opposed any U.S. military operation against Iraq.

•Pakistani President Musharraf announced a plan for free October elections for the national and provincial assemblies.

•The U.S. Treasury authorized the unfreezing of $217 million in Afghan assets.

•Following questioning by Indonesian police, Abu Bakar Bashir, head of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, who earlier had denied his group had ties to al-Qaeda, described Osama bin Laden as “a true Islamic warrior.”

Jan. 25: The day after Israel assassinated Hamas military commander Bakr Hamdan and seriously wounded two others in a missile attack on their car in Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated nail-packed explosives in a Tel Aviv pedestrian mall, killing himself and wounding 24 people. Israeli F-16 warplanes later attacked Palestinian security installations in Gaza City.

•President Bush said he was “very disappointed” in Yasser Arafat, accusing the Palestinian Authority of “enhancing terrorism” by purchasing weapons from Iran.

•As India successfully tested an intermediate-range nuclear-capable missile, Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir killed five alleged members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad, one of the guerrilla groups accused in the Dec. 13 attack on India’s parliament

•Meeting in Kabul with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Afghan interim leader Karzai called for the expansion of the international peacekeeping force. In Washington, Secretary of State Powell said the U.S. would help Afghanistan “for as long as it takes.”

•A congressional delegation flew to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to inspect the prison conditions of al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees.

•More U.S. special forces troops arrived in the southern Philippines, bringing the number of American troops in the country to nearly 100.

Jan. 26: “If something happens to Yasser Arafat,” Saudi intelligence chief Prince Nawaf ibn Abdulaziz warned, “the feeling against America will be stronger” in the Arab world.

Jan. 27: A message received in Karachi said Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had been kidnapped.

•Setting off a downtown Jerusalem attack that killed an Israeli man and wounded more than 100 people, Wafa Idris became the first Palestinian woman suicide bomber.

•Salah Tarif, Israel’s first Arab cabinet minister, resigned amid reports that he would face corruption charges. Tarif, a Druze, denied the charges.

•Over 90 percent of voters in Uzbekistan approved a referendum extending the presidential term of office from five to seven years.

Jan. 28: More than 50 Israeli army combat soldiers and officers signed a statement refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

•Palestinian police arrested PA official Fuad al-Shobaki for involvement in the Karine-A ship transporting weapons from Iran.

•In an interview with The New York Times and Washington Post, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said “we find it very difficult to defend America,” which, he said, “has a duty to follow its conscience to reject repression.”

•Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said that more than 100 of the 158 prisoners held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were Saudi nationals, and that Riyadh wanted them returned for questioning.

•Declaring there would be no war with Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee ruled out a face-to-face meeting with President Musharraf and demanded that Pakistan “return to India” its third of Kashmir.

Jan. 29: In his first State of the Union address, President Bush said the “war against terror is only beginning” and described Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil.”

•White House spokesman Ari Fleisher rejected Saudi and other Arab criticism of U.S. Mideast policy.

•A U.S. District judge in Los Angeles denied bail to JDL leader Irv Rubin and co-defendant Earl Krugel.

•Israel’s National Security Council presented to the Sharon government its “Enveloping Jerusalem” plan, which calls for the city to be surrounded by fences, roadblocks and ditches, with increased checkpoints, foot patrols and electronic surveillance devices.

•Israeli troops raided the West Bank village of Irtas, near Bethlehem, arresting a senior member of Islamic Jihad and two other alleged militants, and wounding four people.

Jan. 30: A Palestinian suicide bomber and alleged former Israeli collaborator threw himself at an Israeli car parked near the West Bank border, injuring two Shin Bet agents inside.

•Hezbollah guerrillas fired anti-aircraft guns at Israeli warplanes attacking south Lebanon.

•Pakistani police arrested Sheikh Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, a suspect in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

•Defense Secretary Rumsfeld recommended a drastic reduction in the number of U.S. troops committed to the Sinai Peninsula’s multinational peacekeeping force.

•The U.S. restored full funding to the London-based opposition Iraqi National Council, which had had its funding reduced because of concerns over accountability.

•Accusing Pakistan-based militants of continuing to infiltrate Indian-controlled Kashmir, India carried out its second missile test in less than a week.

•Australian negotiators reached an agreement with nine teenage Afghan asylum seekers threatening to kill themselves and hundreds of refugees on hunger strike in a remote detention camp in the South Australian desert.

• Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit rejected demands for Kurdish-language education in Turkey’s public schools.

Jan. 31: As President Bush said that those “nations that developed weapons of mass destruction” or supported terrorists are on the U.S. “watch list,” NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said NATO would not automatically support a U.S. expansion of the war on terrorism to Iran, Iraq or North Korea.

•Returning from a five-day inspection mission to Iraq, the head of a U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency team said Iraqi authorities had “provided all help…necessary to perform the inspections.”

•As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kahmenei said the president sounded in his State of the Union address “like a man thirsty for blood,” Jordan’s King Abdullah warned that a U.S. attack on Iraq would cause “immense instablilty” in the region.

•The U.S. put envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni’s mediation mission on hold after a day of violence in Gaza and the West Bank.

•The State Department described as “unhelpful” Prime Minister Sharon’s comment that he wished he had killed Yasser Arafat during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

•The Arab satellite station Al Jazeera cut ties with CNN after the American station broadcast excerpts of a video interview with Osama bin Laden which it allegedly “stole…and distributed illegally.”

•U.S. troops began a six-month training exercise for Filipino soldiers seeking to oust the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group.

•Following a day of clashes between rival Pashtun tribal forces in Gardez, capital of Pakti province, forces loyal to governor Padshah Khan Zadran, one of the first provincial officials appointed by the new interim government, reportedly were defeated.

•Mohamed Moaada, a leading critic of Tunisia’s human rights record, was released after serving seven months in prison.