March 1989, Page 26

Facts For Your Files: A Chronology of US-Mideast Relations

January 3: Afghan students in the Soviet Central Asia city of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, clashed with Soviet police, resulting in the death of an infant boy. The students, cadets at a Soviet policy academy, are among 10,000 Afghanis studying in the Soviet Union.

January 4: Two US Navy F-14 Tomcats on a routine training operation in the Mediterranean shot down two Soviet-built MiG-23 Libyan fighters after their pilots demonstrated "clear hostile intent," according to the US Navy pilots. The clash, which occurred 70 miles north of the Libyan port of Tobruk, came during a time of increasing US concern over a Libyan chemical plant which the Reagan administration contends can manufacture chemical weapons. US officials denied that the downing of the two Libyan aircraft had any connection to US efforts to prevent the manufacture of chemical weapons at the plant. Libya said its planes were unarmed and on routine patrol when the US Navy planes carried out their "premeditated attack." US Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci said the case was "closed" as far as the US was concerned. Libyan leader Col. Muammar el Qaddafi said Libya would "meet challenge with challenge" and called the action "official American terrorism."

January 5: The Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Finance Minister Shimon Peres to cut the Israeli budget by $550 million. Peres, the Labor party leader, proposed the cuts in the face of Israel's worst economic slowdown since 1982.

*West German government investigators said they have found no evidence of illegal exports by Imhausen-Chemie, the West German pharmaceutical manufacturer the US has accused of helping Libya construct a chemical weapons plant in Rabta.

*The US released photos taken during a US-Libyan aerial dash over the Mediterranean Sea Jan. 4 which the Pentagon said showed at least one of the Libyan fighters was fully armed and not an unarmed reconnaissance plane as the Libyan government had claimed.

January 6: West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, in his first public comment on the dispute over West German involvement in the construction of a Libyan chemical weapons plant, formally criticized the Reagan administration's handling of the allegations and said the US had failed to provide evidence West German companies are involved in the plant's construction.

January 7: China, Jordan, and Qatar announced they will upgrade the status of PLO missions in their capitals to embassies, bringing to eight the number of countries which have given such status to the PLO. The other five countries are Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates.

*Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Yuli Vorontsov said the Soviet government would continue its support for Afghan President Najibullah after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, but also endorsed the idea of a shura, or decision-making council, to form a new government, a proposal made by the seven-party rebel alliance a week earlier.

January 8: Arab participants at a five-day conference on chemical weapons in Paris said that a call for a comprehensive ban on such weapons should be linked to a similar stand on nuclear weapons in light of Israel's reported possession of nuclear arms.

*Libya's ambassador to the UN, Ali Treiki, offering a new proposal for settling the dispute over an alleged Libyan chemical weapons plant at Rabta, said his government is willing to allow continuous international inspection of the plant as long as other countries submit to similar inspections.

January 9: Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said evidence shown him by US Secretary of State George Shultz had not convinced him of US allegations that the Rabta chemical plant was capable of producing chemical weapons.

*Libya's representative to a 145-nation chemical weapons conference in Paris said his government has a right to make chemical weapons as long as other nations have similar weapons.

*Afghan rebel leaders refused to resume direct talks with Soviet representatives in Pakistan until Moscow gives up its insistence the Afghan Communist Party be included in the new government.

January 10: Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron in a closed session told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Yasser Arafat's wing of the PLO, Al Fatah, and other units under its control have not planned or carried out any guerrilla acts in more than two months.

*The Israeli army revealed that its soldiers had killed eight guerrillas Jan. 7 in its self-proclaimed security zone in southern Lebanon. The clash, the first between Israeli troops and guerrillas in south Lebanon this year, took place about 11 miles from the Israeli border near the village of Aaramta.

*The Soviet representative at the Paris chemical weapons conference, said Moscow is opposed to a call by Arab representatives to link the abolition of chemical weapons with a parallel abolition of nuclear weapons.

*The Israeli Supreme Court for the first time overruled the military censor in a decision that could lead to wider publication of security subjects in the Israeli press. The three-judge panel overturned censorship of a news story highly critical of Mossad's retiring director, whose identity is kept secret by law.

January 11: In the first Israeli air raid against Lebanese targets this year, Israeli aircraft attacked guerrilla bases of Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council. There were no reports of deaths or casualties following the raids in the Bkusta and Majdalyoun valleys south of Sidon.

*In what appeared to be a reversal by the West German government, Bonn acknowledged for the first time that investigators had uncovered "indications" that two West German firms may have made unauthorized exports to Libya.

*The UN Security Council, in an unprecedented move that could have far-reaching effects, accepted a request from the PLO to address the council during its debate on the downing of two Libyan aircraft by the US. The PLO had been previously denied the right to petition directly for a chance to speak befor6 the council, a right which is normally reserved for UN members with full status as nations.

January 12: Former US government officials, including former Undersecretary of State and Ambassador to the UN George Ball, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and 53 political action committees have violated federal election laws. The complaint charges that AIPAC works to elect or defeat political candidates based on their positions toward Israel, activities the group sees as outside the legal bounds of AIPAC's role as a lobbying organization.

*Scores of angry Jewish settlers, protesting the army's inability to end the 13-month-old intifadah, clashed with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, marking the first large-scale confrontation between Jews since the uprising began.

January 14: Two teen-age Palestinian girls died of head wounds after being shot by Israeli soldiers during demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Their deaths brought to four the number of Palestinian teenagers shot and killed during a particularly violent 36-hour period in the occupied territories.

*The Soviet press agency TASS reported that Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze pledged "all-around" assistance to Afghan President Najibullah during talks in Kabul.

January 16: Two mainstream Israeli Cabinet members publicly criticized the army for opening fire too quickly and too often against Palestinian youths in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The ministers were Ehud Olmert, a member of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's rightist Likud party and the minister responsible for Arab affairs in Israel proper, and Energy Minister Moshe Shahal, who is generally considered a hard-liner when it comes to the Palestinian uprising.

*A 16-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, and another teen-ager died of gunshot wounds received during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip earlier in the week, bringing to 10 the number of Palestinian teen-agers killed during the last five days of the intifadah.

January 17: Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced new harsher security measures aimed at suppressing the 13-month-old Palestinian uprising. The measures include maximum five-year sentences for stone throwers (up from 18 months), fines of $1,000 or more for parents of violators under the age of 14, and demolition of houses if stone throwers cause serious injury; increasing the number of Israeli soldiers authorized to shoot plastic bullets; and a loosening of the rules for shooting the bullets at people fleeing the scene of a riot.

*Iranian Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi expressed his government's willingness to allow a visit from the Council of Europe's Commission on Human Rights, a request made by Italian Prime Minister Ciriaco de Mita during Mousavi's two-day visit to Italy.

*US government officials, confirming a report by ABC News, said Iraq is developing biological weapons, including arms that can spread typhoid, cholera, and anthrax, in a laboratory near the village of Salman Pak, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad.

January 18: Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin walked out of a raucous Knesset debate after opposition members heckled him about the increased bloodshed in the occupied territories and called for his resignation. Legislators supporting the national coalition government also voted down several no-confidence motions proposed by eight smaller parties.

*Iraq's ambassador to the US Abdul Amir Anbari said a report alleging Iraq has built a biological warfare plant is "totally false and unfounded," and that his government would retaliate if Israel attacked the site as it did an Iraqi nuclear plant under construction in June 1981.

January 19: Labor party leader Uzi Baram resigned from his post as secretary-general to protest his party's coalition agreement with the Likud bloc, formalizing an internal split among Labor party members who disagree on how to deal with the PLO's new willingness to negotiate.

*President Reagan authorized five AmeMcan oil companies to resume' operations in Libya, transfer operations to foreign subsidiaries, or sell their assets. The move, announced on Reagan's last day in office, came as the administration renewed its charge that the Libyan government has continued to engage in international terrorism, the same reason US companies were-originally banned from activities in Libya.

January 20: Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in a peace proposal that did not have government backing, suggested neutral, non-UN supervision of elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and said he would consider freeing jailed Palestinian leaders who were willing to negotiate with Israel. The PLO rejected the proposal, saying it would not accept elections under occupation.

*The Israeli government ordered all schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip closed, claiming student gatherings had contributed to the escalating violence in the occupied territories. The move prevented 300,000 Palestinian children from attending classes.

January 22: The Israeli army for the first time publicly acknowledged that 47 Palestinians had been shot and killed by Israeli troops during the last five months firing the supposedly non-lethal plastic bullet. The army confirmed a report that its commanders in the occupied territories have urged troops to refrain from firing the bullets following the deaths of 14 Palestinian teen-agers during one seven-day period. The army also revealed that 2,790 violent incidents took place during a 30-day period ending Jan. 9, compared to 1,595 during the previous 30 days.

January 24: The State Department announced it is helping private US relief organizations in their efforts to send food into rebel-held areas of southern Sudan, a move that could strain US relations with the Sudanese government.

January 25: In one of his first acts a secretary of state, James A. Baker ordered the closing of the US Embassy in Afghanistan and the evacuation of American diplomatic personnel in light of the deteriorating situation in Kabul.

*After three days of intense negotiations in Damascus, Syria, leaders of the Syrian-backed Amal and Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah, rival Shi'ite militias, agreed to a cease-fire to end their escalating conflict in Beirut and southern Lebanon.

January 26: Western diplomats reported that hundreds of Afghan civilians were killed following intense air and artillery attacks by Soviet and Afghan forces attempting to end a rebel blockade of the Salang Highway, the main route linking Kabul to the Soviet Union.

January 27: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met for the first time with officials of the European Community who pledged they will increase their efforts to convene an international peace conference aimed at ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. None of the 12 member-states of the EC has recognized the state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council last November.

*President George Bush said the US will play a "catalytic role helpful to bring about stability" in Afghanistan after the Soviet Union completes the withdrawal of its troops on Feb. 15

January 28: The chief attorney for the Israeli army, Maj. Gen. Amnon Strashnov, defending the army's use of plastic bullets in the occupied territories, said the rules allowing for wider use of the ammunition were "manifestly legal" and, given the circumstance, just and fair as well.

*The New York Times reported that according to federal court records and US government officials, Iran has received secret assistance from European, Asian, and American companies in its attempt to obtain chemicals necessary to produce poison gas.

January 29: The Israeli government freed jailed Palestinian peace activist Faisal Husseini, considered by many to be the leading PLO spokesman in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Husseini, who was released after serving a six-month sentence of administrative detention without charge or trial and who has been held without trial for 18 of the past 21 months, denied that his release was linked to any agreement between him and the Israeli government over political negotiations.

January 30: Amnesty International reported that more than 1,000 political prisoners, mostly supporters of the Mujahadeen—Iran's main opposition group—have been shot or hung during the last six months. The London based human rights group said the executions, the most extensive since the early 1980s, also affected other left-wing groups.

*The United States dosed its embassy in Kabul as the security in and around the Afghan capital became more uncertain. West Germany's embassy has also been closed and Japan, Britain, France, and Italy were expected to close their embassies soon.

*Iran and Syria signed an agreement intended to impose a truce between the Syrian-backed Amal militia and the Iranian-backed Party of God, Hezbollah. The pact, which will allow Hezbollah to return to south Lebanon, calls for a return to the situation before April 1988 and for Amal to be in charge of security in southern Lebanon.

January 31: The Soviet commander of troops in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Boris Gromov, said his government will refrain from using air power to support the government of Afghan President Najibullah once all Soviet troops have been withdrawn.