Washington Report, January 10, 1983, Page 6

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

December 9:

A State Department spokesman said that the Administration had extended for another year the executive order issued by President Reagan on Dec. 10, 1981, barring U.S. citizens from traveling to Libya.

December 13:

U.S. marines with the multinational peacekeeping force in Beirut began training a special unit of the Lebanese army in "basic infantry skills," according to a spokesman for the marines.

December 13:

Presidential counselor Edwin Meese said in comments to The Long Island Jewish World that the issue of whether Jordan accepted the Camp David accords was "unrelated" to Jordan's expected request to buy advanced missiles and fighter planes from the U.S. He added: "I don't think one is a quid pro quo for the other. I don't see them as being linked."

December 15:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it had granted $210 million in credit guarantees to U.S. banks to finance food sales to Iraq. The guarantees covered $120 million for wheat, $80 million for rice and $10 million for barley.

December 16:

President Reagan said in an interview with The Washington Post that "we think the time has come now" for the armed forces of Israel, Syria and the PLO to leave Lebanon. The President also said that "for those countries to delay in getting out now places them in the position of being occupying armies."

December 19:

Concerned over the continued presence of 1,300 U.S. marines in Lebanon, 14 of the 17 Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee sent President Reagan a letter noting that: "Congress reserves the ability to direct the removal of such forces at any time they are engaged in hostilities."

December 20:

U.S. State Department spokesman Alan Romberg characterized as "a positive step forward" Israel's Dec. 19 decision to drop its demand that Jerusalem be one of the sites for talks on the withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon.

December 21:

President Reagan signed into law an omnibus spending bill for the remainder of fiscal 1983 containing aid to Israel totaling $2.485 billion-$5 10 million more than he requested. Of the $1.7 billion allocated in military assistance, $750 million will not have to be paid back, while the entire $785 million in economic aid is also a gift.

December 23:

King Hussein of Jordan left Washington after four days of talks with U.S. officials, including two meetings with President Reagan and one with Secretary of State George Shultz. The King left with written assurances from President Reagan that the President would diligently pursue the implementation of his Sept. I proposals for Middle East peace and that he would bring about a "freeze" on the construction of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

December 29:

Four members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged President Reagan in a letter to stop the sale of 60 American-made helicopters to Iraq until Congress reviewed U.S. export policy to Iran and Iraq to determine if the sale would violate U.S. neutrality in the Iran-Iraq war. The Senators included the committee chairman Charles Percy (R-Ill.) and members Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), Alan Dixon (D-Ill.) and Larry Pressler (R-S.D.).

January 5:

President Reagan held a meeting at the White House with Israel's President, Yitzhak Navon, although it was "not a session where issues of substance were being negotiated," according to a senior Administration official, The Israeli president's role is largely ceremonial.