Washington Report, February 4, 1985, Page 8

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

January 3:

Representative Robert Roe (D-NJ) introduced in the House a nonbinding resolution expressing "the sense of the Congress" that the Reagan Administration should recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and transfer the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. A similar measure was introduced last year but it did not pass.

January 8:

Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal Hassan Ali said in an interview with The Washington Post that his country had asked the Reagan Administration for a total of $3.15 billion in military and economic aid for fiscal year 1986—nearly $1 billion more than the $2.2 billion it now is receiving. Several weeks earlier Israel asked the U.S. for $4.05 billion.

January 17:

State Department spokesman Alan Romberg confirmed that the U.S. and the Soviet Union had an "agreement in principle" to hold new talks on the Middle East. Press reports indicate that the talks would be held at the level of assistant secretary of state. No time or place has yet been set, according to Mr. Romberg.

January 20:

Israel began the first phase of what it said was a three-stage plan for the withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon, although it offered no timetable as to when the withdrawal would be completed. In the first phase, Israeli military forces along the Mediterranean coast will establish a new position at the Litani River. From that point, Israeli troops will re-deploy along a new line running sharply northeast, keeping the Lebanese towns of Nabatiye and Jezzin under Israeli control.

January 24:

President Reagan charged that a "new danger" in Central America "is the support being given the Sandinistas" (the current government in Nicaragua) by the government of Iran, as well as by Libya and the PLO. This marked the first time Mr. Reagan has accused Iran of supporting Nicaragua, and came as Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi was in Nicaragua on a two-day visit.

January 25:

White House deputy press secretary Robert Sims said there was reason to believe Iran was "in the process of arranging support in the form of oil supplies and funding for armaments which would add to the Nicaraguan arsenal." Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi denied Iran was involved in any "arms dealing" with Nicaragua.

January 28:

The London news agency Visnews released a videotape showing kidnapped U.S. diplomat William Buckley—who was captured at gunpoint in Beirut last March—holding a recent newspaper and saying that lie and two other Americans taken hostage in Beirut were "well." Mr. Buckley then asked "that our government take action for our release quickly." The two other Americans he was referring to were Jeremy Levin, Cable News Network's bureau chief in Beirut, and Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister. Two additional Americans missing in Beirut are the Reverend Lawrence Jenco and Peter Kilburn.

January 30:

President Reagan informed visiting Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin that the Administration would ask Congress for a $400 million increase in U.S. military aid to Israel in FY 1986. The President will propose $1.8 billion in total military assistance to Israel, up from $1.4 billion this year. 'The White House said no decision had been made on how much economic aid would be proposed.

January 30:

Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, said the Administration was "reviewing possible arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries" as part of a "comprehensive review of our security interests and our strategy in the area." He said the review would take four to six weeks to complete, and that it would be "several months" before any proposals to sell weapons in the Middle East were submitted to Congress. Mr. Murphy made his remarks to the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East.