January 1991, Page 47

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Nov. 1: President Bush said he is "not trying to prepare our country for war."

UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar proposed that the 164 signatory nations to the Geneva Convention meet to discuss the protection of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Nov. 2: Saudi officials said that Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in high-level talks aimed at renewing diplomatic relations.

Nov. 4: An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement dismissed as "one-sided" UN Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar's call for international protection of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

The first contingent of a promised 15,000-man Syrian armored division arrived in Saudi Arabia.

Nov 5: Extremist Jewish leader Rabbi Meir Kahane, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, was assassinated while giving a speech at a New York City hotel. Police arrested El-Sayyed Nosair, a US citizen born in Egypt.

US and Saudi officials announced an agreement whereby a military initiative undertaken from Saudi soil would require the joint approval of President Bush and King Fahd but, following such authorization, would free US forces to plan and execute the attack without Saudi military involvement.

Nov. 6: Senior Iraqi officials said their country was prepared to discuss "every aspect of the crisis in the Gulf, without exception, " if negotiations were held without preconditions.

Nawaz Sharif, whose rightist coalition was victorious in October elections, was sworn in as Pakistan's new prime minister.

Nov. 7: Following the funeral of Rabbi Meir Kahane in Jerusalem, hundreds of his followers rioted, rampaging through downtown streets, breaking shop windows and beating up Arab passersby.

Secretary of State James Baker, following visits to US forces and allies in the Gulf, met with Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal before flying to Moscow to meet with Soviet President Gorbachev.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the international coalition should give economic sanctions against Iraq "at least two to three more months" to work.

Nov. 8: President George Bush ordered an additional 200,000 US forces to the Gulf.

Nov. 10: Hundreds of Lebanese militia forces began pulling out of Beirut in response to a call from the Hrawi government creating a militia-free zone around the capital.

Nov. 11: Morocco's King Hassan called for an emergency Arab summit to avert a war in the Gulf.

Israeli sources said the Shamir government might consider accepting UN envoy Jean Claude Aime if the visit were not tied directly to Security Council resolutions condemning the reported Israeli killings of some 21 Palestinians at the Haram Al-Sharif, and if the US agreed to block new Security Council action against Israel.

Nov. 12: Iraq gave a qualified response to the Moroccan proposal for an Arab summit, saying it wanted the Arab-Israeli conflict to be included on the agenda.

Nov. 13: Israel arrested and ordered imprisoned without trial three prominent Palestinian leaders, journalists Radwan Abu Ayyash and Ziad Abu Zayyad and physician Ahmed Yaziji. The Shamir government also promoted, to full inspector general and chief of personnel, -Commander Aryeh Bibi, blamed by an Israeli investigative commission for failing to prevent the violence at the Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount.

Secretary of State Baker said the deployment of US troops to the Gulf was necessary to protect American jobs and the "economic lifeline" of the West.

Nov. 14: Saudi Arabia said it would not attend an emergency Arab summit unless Iraq agreed to withdraw from Kuwait.

Nov. 15: US and Saudi forces carried out an amphibious landing exercise about 100 miles from the border of occupied Kuwait.

Us Secretary of State Baker embarked on an intensive series of visits to member countries of the UN Security Council in an effort to enlist support for a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

Nov. 16: Former US President Jimmy Carter criticized President Bush's decision to increase the US military presence in the Gulf and called for negotiations with Iraq.

Nov. 18: Iraq announced it would free all remaining hostages between Dec. 25 and March 25 "unless something should occur to disturb the atmosphere of peace."

Nov. 19: Iraq announced the deployment of an additional 250,000 troops to Kuwait and southern Iraq.

Meeting with Soviet President Gorbachev, US President Bush failed to get immediate Soviet support for a UN resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq.

Nov. 20: At the UN, Arab nations said they would not try to expel Israel from the world body if the General Assembly would declare that the Israeli delegation does not represent the occupied territories.

Nov. 22: President Bush spent Thanksgiving Day with US troops stationed in the Saudi desert and on an amphibious assault ship in the Persian Gulf, then flew to Cairo for a meeting with Egyptian President Mubarak.

Nov. 23: Returning to the US from a six nation tour of Europe and the Middle East, President Bush met with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad in Geneva, Switzerland.

Nov. 25: US Defense Secretary Cheney and National Security Adviser Scowcroft, in separate television appearances, said that Iraq may be able to develop a crude nuclear weapon within a year.

Nov. 27: The International Atomic Energy Agency, invited by President Saddam Hussain to make a special inspection visit to Iraq, reported that Iraq's small stock of enriched reactor fuel has not been diverted to build a nuclear weapon.

Nov. 28: The Bush administration said the International Atomic Energy Agency was misled by Iraq during its recent inspection of nuclear sites in that country.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairmen General David Jones and Admiral William Crowe criticized the deployment' of additional US troops to the Gulf and said economic sanctions should be given more time to work.

Israeli planes bombed Palestinian guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon in retaliation for an attack which killed five Israeli soldiers.

Nov. 29: UN Security Council foreign ministers approved a US-sponsored resolution authorizing the use of force if Iraq does not withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15. The vote was 12-2, with Cuba and Yemen voting against and China abstaining. Shortly before the vote, Iraqi President Saddam Hussain said his country was ready for war against US-led troops in the Gulf.

Nov. 30: President Bush invited Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to visit Washington the week of Dec. 10 and said he had asked US Secretary of State Baker to visit Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussain "at a mutually convenient time" before Jan. 15. Iraqi officials responded favorably to the Bush initiative, and the per-barrel price of oil on the spot market dropped $4.