Washington Report, January 27, 1986, Page 8

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

December 20:

The State Department announced that it had closed the case of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the 31 year old naval analyst arrested for spying for Israel against the U.S. Both the American and Israeli governments indicated they wanted to put the affair behind them, with a State Department spokesman saying Israeli American relations were based "on a solid foundation of deep friendship, close affinity, and mutual trust."

December 21:

Libya acknowledged reports that it had installed Soviet-made SAM 5 long range antiaircraft missiles in at least two locations, claiming their purpose was to protect the Gulf of Sidra on Libya's Mediterranean coast and to prevent "American aggression."

December 27:

Arab terrorists attacked the check in counters of Israel's El Al Airlines at the Rome and Vienna international airports, killing 18 people including five Americans and wounding over 100. A radical Palestinian group headed by Sabri al Bana (Abu Nidal) claimed credit for the attacks. Abu Nidal, who broke away from the PLO some ten years earlier, has sworn to kill PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat.

December 30:

The U.S. accused Libya of supporting the Abu Nidal terrorist group and said that military action was an option in combating terrorism.

January 1:

Libya's Muammar Qaddafi praised the terrorist attacks in Rome and Vienna and warned Israel and the U.S. that any retaliation against Libya could result in Libyans "harassing Americans in their own streets." Qaddafi denied Libya played any role in the attacks. Italian and Austrian investigators indicated that the seven terrorists involved in the attacks had trained with Iranian funded extremists in Syrian controlled areas of Lebanon, and were traveling on passports taken from their original owners by the Libyan Government.

January 5:

U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that Syria had withdrawn batteries of SAM 6 and SAM 8 mobile missiles from Lebanon into Syria. It was the second time the missiles had been moved into Lebanon and returned to Syria after Israeli aircraft flying over Lebanon near the Syrian border had shot down two Syrian aircraft.

January 7:

Suleiman Khater, the former Egyptian policeman sentenced to 25 years in prison for murdering seven Israeli tourists in the Sinai last October, reportedly hanged himself in his prison cell. Egyptian students took to the streets, accusing the Mubarak government of killing Khater, whom they praised as the "martyr of the Sinai."

January 7:

President Reagan issued an executive order prohibiting American companies from doing business with Libya, and ordered all Americans working in Libya to return home by February 1 or face possible criminal prosecution. Reagan also called on America's European allies to cooperate with the economic sanctions.

January 10:

President Reagan froze hundreds of millions of dollars in Libyan government assets in the U.S. The freeze was reportedly prompted by a Libyan government transfer of some $100 million from a U.S. bank.

January 13:

Israel's 10 man "Inner Cabinet" agreed to send the Taba border dispute to international arbitration, a process supported by Israeli Prime Minister Peres and Egyptian President Mubarak. Peres had threatened to resign if Likud members of his cabinet did not agree to arbitration for Taba, the only piece of Egyptian territory seized by Israel during the 1967 war which has not been returned.