March 1990, Page 29

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Jan. 1: Ten senior Jerusalem Post journalists resigned one week after the resignation of the English-language daily's top editor, Erwin Frenkel, claiming an "erosion of editorial independence" and a shift to the right under publisher Yehuda Levy, appointed to the job by the Israeli newspaper's new Canadian owners.

Jan. 2: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir rescinded his dismissal of Science Minister Ezer Weizman on charges of meeting with the PLO, and thus averted a collapse of the ruling Labor-Likud coalition. Weizman will retain his portfolio but be suspended from the decision-making inner cabinet.

Jan. 3: The Soviet government reinforced its troops along the USSR-Iranian border in the Azerbaijani region in the face of large demonstrations by Soviet Azerbaijanis demanding an open border with Iran.

Jan. 4: An Amnesty International report charged that Israel has encouraged the use of I excessive and indiscriminate" force by its troops, including the killing of teenage stonethrowers, in its attempt to put down the two year-old Palestinian intifada.

Jan. 5: Michael Harari, a former Israeli intelligence agent and adviser to Panamanian General Manuel Noriega, who escaped from Panama when the US invaded in December, appeared on Israeli TV, denied any relationship with Noriega and said, "I am simply a private individual involved in business."

Jan. 6: Iran rejected the latest Iraqi proposal for an exchange of prisoners and renewed peace talks between the two countries calling it "anew campaign of public deception" on the part of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Jan. 10: More than 320,000 students in the occupied West Bank returned to classes after lifting of a two-month school closure imposed by Israeli military authorities.

Hours after a meeting between Israeli Science Minister Ezer Weizman and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet government announced it would allow the PLO to upgrade its Moscow representation to an embassy.

Jan. 12: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak fired his controversial interior minister Zaki Badr after Badr reportedly said he wanted to kill Muslim fundamentalists. Appointed in 1986, Badr has been criticized for abusing civil liberties and human rights in Egypt.

A Bulgarian citizens' commission drafted an 11-point statement, to be presented to the country's National Assembly, guaranteeing equal rights to Bulgaria's Turkish and Muslim minorities while reaffirming the country's territorial integrity and the official status of Bulgarian as the national language.

Jan. 13: Turkey's Prime Minister Turgut Ozal inaugurated the beginning of the divers ion of water from the Euphrates River to fill the massive new Ataturk Dam in southeastern Turkey.

Jan. 15: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, speaking to Zionist veterans in Tel Aviv about the projected influx of Soviet Jewish immigrants, set off protests from several states, including the US, which support UN Security Council Resolution 242's land-for-peace proposal, when he said, "For this big immigration, we need the Land of Israel and a big, strong state of Israel."

Jan. 16: In a New York Times op-ed article, Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS) proposed a five percent across-the-board cut in aid to Israel Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and the Philippines: the five countries which receive more than two-thirds of worldwide US foreign aid.

Jan. 17: State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler, reaffirming US support for Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, said the Bush administration does not support demands for an independent Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned against "miscalculated and harsh" measures by Soviet troops in the strife-torn republic.

Jan. 19: Palestinian leader Faisal al-Husseini was arrested after an Israeli court sentenced him to four days in jail while police investigated his alleged role in the intifada. The US State Department expressed surprise and disappointment at the arrest, its second condemnation of Israeli actions in a week.

Jan. 20: Soviet troops claimed control of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku following a night of battling between soldiers and Azerbaijani residents, who had erected barricades to prevent the Soviet troops from entering. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 60 to several hundred; Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said he ordered the military intervention to prevent an attempted coup by the Azerbaijani Popular Front.

Jan. 22: The Azerbaijani Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution threatening to secede from the Soviet Union if troops were not withdrawn from the Azerbaijani republic.

A month-long conflict between rival Shi'i Amal and Hezbollah militias in southern Lebanon expanded as meetings between Syrian President Assad and Lebanese President Hrawi concluded with an agreement to restrict the entry of illegal aliens into Lebanon, a move aimed primarily at Iran, which backs Hezbollah. Syria, which backs Amal, also agreed to give military aid to the Hrawi government.

In a second day of protests, Kashmiri separatists defied a curfew in the city of Srinagar and clashed with Indian troops. At least 38 people were killed and over 300 wounded.

Jan. 24: Afghan President Najibullah said his government would relinquish power if it were defeated in UN-supervised elections, but refused to step down prior to the beginning of negotiations with Muslim rebels.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Labor Party leader Shimon Peres met in Cairo to discuss future Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Peres, who said his proposals for compromise had been accepted by Mubarak, said, "We are so near to starting a meaningful negotiation with the Palestinians that it would be a fatal mistake to give it up." Israeli Prime Minister Shamir said he "absolutely does not agree."

Jan. 25: The body of Arik Afek, an Israeli businessman accused, with Israeli military officer Yair Klein, of training Columbian drug trafficker assassination teams, was found in Miami stuffed into the trunk of a car. Detectives did not indicate whether they had any suspects.

Jan. 26: Rabbi Baruch Abu-Hatzera, a leader of Israeli Sephardic Jews of North African origin, surprised his generally hardline followers by calling for negotiations with the PLO, saying, "I once supported not talking to the PLO, too. It was right two years ago. But today it's already too late."

Jan. 27: The Azerbaijani Popular Front called for withdrawal of Soviet troops from Baku in return for Azerbaijani guarantees of law and order there.

Jan. 30: Lebanese Christian General Michel Aoun banned the powerful Lebanese Forces Christian militia, led by rival leader Samir Geagea.