March 1991, Page 47

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

Compiled by John E. Thompson

Jan. 1: On the 26th anniversary of the founding of the PLO's Fatah movement, Israeli troops killed four Palestinian demonstrators and placed more than a million under curfew in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

-Iran announced it would conduct month long military maneuvers in January in its provinces bordering Iraq.

Jan. 2: NATO announced it would send three squadrons of German, Italian, and Belgian jet fighters to Turkey to defend the country's border with Iraq.

Jan. 3: Britain expelled 75 Iraqis, including eight diplomats.

-In apparent preparation for war, Iraq announced it would move its government out of Baghdad to temporary quarters before Jan. 15. On the same day, however, Iraqi National Assembly Speaker Saadi Mehdi Saleh said in an interview that Iraq still wanted Secretary of State James Baker to come to Baghdad for talks.

-Congress cancelled its January recess and prepared to debate whether or not to authorize the president to use force in the Persian Gulf.

Jan. 4: Iraq accepted a US proposal for talks in Geneva on Jan. 9 between Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. President Bush said he would not send Baker to Baghdad, having "exhausted that option. "

-Jordan's Prime Minister Mudar Badran brought into his cabinet five members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which has dominated Jordan's parliament for the year since free elections were held.

Jan. 7: US military leaders made final a decision to use neither chemical nor nuclear weapons in a Gulf conflict.

-The Maronite Christian Lebanese Forces militia threatened to block progress of the new Lebanese government if its conditions for joining were not met. LF leader Samir Geagea and two other Christian leaders had not yet taken their posts in the week-old cabinet.

-FBI agents began interviewing Arab-American business and community leaders about potential terrorist activity in the US. Jan. 8: US and Spanish naval vessels continued to detain a Soviet freighter seized on Jan. 4 that was carrying military hardware possibly bound for Iraq.

Jan. 9: After meeting for six hours in Geneva, US Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz announced no progress toward a peaceful resolution of the Gulf crisis.

Jan. 10: The US Justice Department instructed immigration authorities to photograph and fingerprint anyone entering the US on an Iraqi or Kuwaiti passport.

Jan. 11: Saudi Arabia gave its official approval for the US to begin military operations against Iraq.

Jan. 13: Israel rebuffed a US request not to retaliate against an Iraqi attack, although Israeli officials continued to indicate that they planned to absorb a first strike without retaliating.

-Jordan put its troops on military alert, stationing thousands in defensive positions along the Jordan Valley facing Israel. The deployment, diplomats said, was a signal to Israel to remain out of a Gulf conflict.

-After meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussain in Baghdad, UN Secretary General Javier Peres de Cuellar reported no progress towards a peaceful solution to the Gulf crisis.

Jan. 14: The Israeli High Court ordered the Israeli army to distribute gas masks to Palestinians in the occupied territories. The army had not distributed diem, allegedly for fear the Palestinians would use the masks as defense against the tear gas Israeli soldiers routinely use against them.

-Two top aides to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) and Hayel Abdel-Hamid (Abul Hol), were assassinated by a PLO bodyguard in Tunis. The gunman was a former member of the Abu Nidal terrorist group, now based in Baghdad.

Jan. 15: The Iraqi Parliament voted unanimously to back Saddam Hussain in a war with UN forces.

Jan. 16: The US and its allies launched a massive air attack (shortly after midnight on Jan. 17 in Iraq) on military and official targets in Iraq and Kuwait. US officials expressed surprise at the feeble Iraqi response.

Jan. 17: Iraqi Scud missiles carrying conventional warheads landed in Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel, and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. US officials scrambled to restrain the Israelis from retaliating.

-Jordan and the PLO issued strong statements condemning the allied attack on Iraq. Other Arab nations reacted more mildly than many in the US had anticipated.

Jan. 19: A second Scud missile attack was launched against Israel.

-US Marine and Army troops in Saudi Arabia began to move north in preparation for ground fighting.

Jan. 21: US Patriot air-defense missiles successfully intercepted nine Iraqi Scuds fired into Saudi Arabia.

-Seven allied pilots captured by the Iraqis were paraded on Iraqi television.

-Syrian ministers joined Saudi and Egyptian officials in promising that Israeli retaliation for Iraqi Scud attacks would not force them to quit the US-led alliance.

Jan. 22: Israel presented the US with a request for an additional $13 billion in aid.

Jan. 23: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced that Germany would send $165 million in humanitarian aid to Israel.

Jan. 24: A senior aide to German Chancellor Kohl announced that German firms had illegally provided Iraq with technology to increase the range of its Scud missiles.

-Under improving weather conditions, allied forces stepped up the pace of sorties into Iraq. Spokesmen said that allied planes had taken off more than 15,000 times in the war's first week.

Jan. 25: Western intelligence agents claimed to haave found evidence leading to a terrorist network trained in Bangkok. Two Iraqis and a Jordanian were arrested.

Jan. 26: George Habash, leader of the PLO-affiliated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, called for terrorist attacks against US, British and French military targets. "We are in a state of war, " he said.

-US officials reported that an oil slick released by Iraq was "the worst environmental disaster in the history of the Persian Gulf region."

-Pentagon officials announced that at least two dozen Iraqi military and civilian aircraft had flown to Iran since the beginning of the war. The reason for the exodus was unclear; Iran claimed the planes would be impounded until the war's end.

Jan. 28: The Iraqi government reported that 324 civilians had been killed and 416 wounded by allied bombs since Jan. 16.

-Turkey continued a buildup of troops and supplies along its border with Iraq, worrying officials in Iran and Syria.

Jan. 29: Israeli gunboats and helicopters attacked a Palestinian refugee camp near Tyre, Lebanon, in retaliation for a rocket attack on Israel's "security zone."

Jan. 30: Israeli authorities charged Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh with espionage and sentenced him without trial to six months' administrative detention.