A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Dec. 1:NATO authorized the deployment of the first 2,600 of an eventual 60,000 peacekeeping troops to Bosnia.

Dec. 2: Indicted war criminal and Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic said that some parts of the Dayton peace agreement would have to be renegotiated because "Serbs cannot agree with the Dayton maps." In Sarajevo, to be patrolled by French peacekeeping troops according to the Dayton agreement, the Bosnian government accused French U.N. soldiers of supporting Bosnian Serb protestors in the capital's suburbs and said that NATO should replace the French force with U.S. troops.

Dec. 3: President Clinton formally approved the immediate deployment of U.S. advance troops to Bosnia.

Dec. 4: The first NATO peacekeeping troops arrived in Bosnia and Croatia.

*An American medical team flew to Riyadh to help treat Saudi King Fahd, who suffered a stroke the previous week.

Dec. 5: Yigal Amir was formally charged with premeditated murder for the Nov. 4 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. His brother Hagai and their friend Dror Adani were charged with conspiracy to kill the late Israeli prime minister and to attack Palestinian Arabs.

*As it approved the deployment of some 60,000 troops to Bosnia under NATO auspices, France announced it would resume active involvement in NATO's military wing after three decades of nonparticipation.

*French police arrested 19 alleged Islamic militants in raids in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse and Tours.

Dec. 6: King Hussein of Jordan offered to host a meeting of Iraqi opposition leaders, including Kurds and Sunni and Shi'i Muslims, to discuss a post-Saddam Iraq.

Dec. 7: Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party won an overwhelming majority in national parliamentary elections characterized by incidents of violence and charges of rigged voting.

*While visiting Cairo, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said he would appoint an Israeli reserve general to head an inquiry into the killing of Egyptian noncombatants and prisoners of war in the 1956 Suez invasion and 1967 Six-Day War.

*Reportedly acting on a U.S. tip, Jordanian officials seized a shipment of sophisticated missile components en route to Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions. In Kurdish northern Iraq, a fuel tanker explosion killed at least 10 people, including two U.N. guards, and wounded some 30 others.

Dec. 8: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke urged Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic to remove all foreign Islamic fighters from the former Yugoslav republic.

*Meeting at the Gaza Strip's Erez crossing for the first time since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres praised PNA President Yasser Arafat for his efforts in curbing terrorist attacks and said Israel will allow an additional 9,500 Palestinians to enter Israel from the West Bank and Gaza in order to work.

Dec. 10: The first U.S. Marine contingent of the NATO peacekeeping force arrived in Sarajevo.

*On the first day of his American visit, Israeli Prime Minister Peres attended a rally of American Jews in New York's Madison Square Garden. Other participants included Leah Rabin, widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau, and U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

*Israeli occupying forces withdrew from Tulkarm, the third West Bank city to be turned over to Palestinian rule under the 1995 Israeli-PLO peace agreement.

Dec. 11: Israeli troops withdrew from Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, a day ahead of schedule, setting off widespread celebrations among its Palestinian residents.

*Following a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Peres, President Clinton announced a new U.S. effort to revive Syrian-Israeli peace talks.

*President Clinton formally asked Congress to approve the deployment of 20,000 U.S. peacekeeping troops to Bosnia.

Dec. 12: Leaders of more than 100 American Jewish organizations held a "Peace Process Advocacy Day" on Capitol Hill, lobbying legislators to pass the $12.1 billion 1996 foreign aid bill so that Israel would receive its $3 billion share of the total by the end of the year.

*After reaching an agreement with the Clinton administration, the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY), approved a bill subjecting any foreign corporation or bank investing $40 million or more in Iran's oil and gas industry to U.S. economic sanctions.

*Bosnian Serbs released two French pilots held captive since being shot down over Bosnia on Aug. 30.

Dec. 13: As President Clinton flew to Paris for the signing of the Dayton peace accord, the Senate voted 69 to 30 to approve the deployment of U.S. troops to Bosnia.

*Israeli Prime Minister Peres, addressing a joint session of Congress, called on Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad to join in the Middle East peace process, but did not promise that Israel would return the Golan Heights to Syria.

*The European Parliament voted 343 to 143, with 36 abstentions, to establish a customs union with Turkey.

*Following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan, joint commander with U.S. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf of allied forces in the Gulf war, said that sanctions against Iraq "have not achieved their aim and we must look for another way."

Dec. 14: In a ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris attended by U.S. President Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany, Russia and Spain, Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia signed the Balkan peace treaty.

Dec. 15: For the second day, bad weather prevented U.S. transport planes from landing at Bosnia's Tuzla air base, where U.S. peackeeping troops are to be headquartered.

Dec. 16: In Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced that a new round of Syrian-Israeli negotiations would begin in Washington Dec. 27.

Dec. 17: In the newly liberated West Bank city of Nablus, Ahmad Tabouk, renegade leader of the Fatah Hawks militia, surrendered to PNA police after a standoff of several hours.

Dec. 18: Hours after a cease-fire was to have taken effect, Yemen accused Eritrea of invading the disputed Red Sea islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish. Eritrea denied the charge.

Dec. 19: On the opening day of his trial for the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir smiled, grinned and gestured to courtroom spectators.

Dec. 20: In a ceremony at the Sarajevo airport, the U.N. formally turned over to NATO the command of the Bosnian peacekeeping mission.

*Newly appointed Israeli Interior Minister Haim Ramon said seven American Jews, including Jewish Orthodox Rabbi Abraham Hecht of New York, who in the summer of 1995 publicly proclaimed religious justification for the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, were denied entry to Israel.

Dec. 21: Talks between the PNA and Hamas ended after Hamas refused to participate in Palestinian elections or end attacks in Israel.

*House and Senate negotiators agreed to a House Republican proposal to add $18 million to the CIA's $2 million program for covert action against Iran.

Dec. 22: Although not acknowledging Israel's possession of nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Peres said to a group of Israeli journalists, "Give me peace and we'll give up the nuclear program."

*A car bomb which exploded in a Karachi shopping center killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 125. In response to complaints from Egypt and the Philippines, Pakistan had recently signed agreements promising to arrest and expel from Pakistan dissidents from the two countries.

Dec. 23: Tens of thousands of Palestinians thronged Bethlehem's Manger Square to greet PNA President Yasser Arafat and celebrate the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Dec. 25: PNA President Arafat celebrated Christmas eve midnight mass in Bethlehem, under Palestinian self-rule after 28 years of Israeli occupation.

*In Turkish national elections, the Islamist Refah (Welfare) party won 21.3 percent of the vote compared to 19.2 percent for the ruling True Path party and 19.65 percent for the conservative secular Motherland party. Tendering her resignation, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said she would try to form a coalition with the Motherland party.

Dec. 26: Bosnian Serb leaders asked U.S. Navy Adm. Leighton W. Smith, commander of the NATO peacekeeping force, to delay the reunification of Sarajevo by more than six months.

*Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, 80, announced he would not run in the Likud primary for re-election to the Knesset.

Dec. 27: Leaving Ramallah, Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from six cities and more than 400 villages in the West Bank.

*Israeli, Syrian and U.S. negotiators opened talks on Maryland's Eastern Shore outside Washington, DC.

Dec. 28: In accordance with the Dayton peace accord, Bosnian Serb and government troops withdrew from their frontline positions in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Work on a pontoon bridge to be used by U.S. peacekeeping troops crossing the Sava River from Croatia into Bosnia was halted by flooding.

Dec. 30: The first casualty among U.S. troops in Bosnia occurred when an American soldier was wounded when his vehicle hit a land mine.

*Israeli officials blamed Syria for two Katyusha attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, who said the attacks were in response to Israeli shelling of south Lebanon in which a civilian was killed.

Dec. 31: The first U.S. peacekeeping troops crossed the Sava River from Croatia into Bosnia when a U.S. army pontoon bridge was completed after days of flooding delayed its construction.