March 1997, pgs. 99-100

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Dec. 1: At an emergency meeting in Cairo, the Arab League rejected Syrian demands for the suspension of relations with Israel, instead issuing a statement demanding that Israel not only cease building illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, but that it dismantle existing settlements immediately.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu approved construction of an additional 350 housing units in the fertile Jordan Valley, a move that would nearly triple the Jewish presence there to some 15,000 residents, and vowed that the area would always be part of Israel.

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Report charged that international military and civilian peacekeepers were not interfering with Bosnian Serb nationalists, including indicted war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who had carried out “ethnic cleansing” and now were running paramilitary cells intimidating minorities in Bosnian Serb-controlled areas.

Dec. 3: As the U.S. warned President Slobodan Milosevic against cracking down on the tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting daily since the cancellation of Nov. 17 municipal election results, Serbian government authorities shut down Belgrade’s last two independent radio stations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati met in Damascus with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa to discuss “measures that need to be adopted” in the event of an Israeli military attack against Syria.

Dec. 4: The U.S. announced that the Voice of America would beam broadcasts by an independent Serbian radio station into Serbia.

An international conference overseeing implementation of the Dayton peace accords warned Bosnia’s rival factions that continued financial aid was dependent on significantly greater cooperation.

The U.S. began evacuating some 4,000 to 5,000 Kurds who had worked for private relief organizations in northern Iraq.

Dec. 5: Former Secretary of State James Baker, speaking at a conference in Washington, DC, said President Clinton should “speak out” against continued Israeli settlement building.

The Serbian government allowed two independent radio stations to resume broadcasting, and indicated it might consider honoring the results of municipal elections won by opposition parties.

The Palestinian National Authority announced it would launch an official inquiry into the death of Rashid Fityani, a prisoner who was shot to death by a guard in a Jericho jail, where he was being held on charges of killing a member of Hamas.

Dec. 8: Serbia’s supreme court rejected the appeal by the oppositon coalition Zajedno (“Together”) and upheld the government’s annulment of municipal election results.

Dec. 9: Anti-government demonstrations entered their third week as some 100,000 people took to the streets of Belgrade and other Serbian cities to protest the nullification of municipal election results.

In what outgoing Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali termed “a victory for the poorest of the poor of Iraq, for the women and children,” the U.N. approved the details allowing Iraq to sell $2 billion worth of oil over six months and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.

Dec. 10: Jerusalem’s planning commission approved a plan for constructing 132 houses for Jews in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud.

At a ceremony in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk, President Saddam Hussain reopened a 616-mile pipeline to Turkey carrying the first crude oil pumped by Iraq since the end of the Gulf war six years ago.

Dec. 11: In the first armed attack in five months, Palestinian gunmen strafed a car of Jewish settlers north of Ramallah, killing a 12-year-old boy and his mother, and wounding five others.

Dec. 12: Uday Saddam Hussain, eldest son of the Iraqi president, was wounded in an ambush on his car in a Baghdad neighborhood.

Dec. 13: In a move that the U.S. State Department called “troubling,” the Israeli cabinet voted to restore subsidies to Jews living in illegal West Bank settlements.

As the 25th day of mass demonstrations brought more than 120,000 protestors to the streets of Belgrade, Serbian President Milosevic announced he had invited a team of international observers to determine whether Nov. 17 municipal elections had been rigged, and the possible establishment of a multi-party parliamentary committee to investigate the charges.

Iraqi opposition sources said more than 120 people had been rounded up following the shooting of Uday Saddam Hussain.

Dec. 15: In a public letter to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, former Secretaries of State James Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Cyrus Vance and Lawrence Eagleburger, former National Security Advisers Frank Carlucci and Brent Scowcroft, and former Middle East negotiators Richard Fairbanks and Robert Strauss expressed concern “that unilateral actions, such as the expansion of settlements...could halt progress made by the peace process over the last two decades.” Former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz were not among the signatories.

A district court in Serbia’s second-largest city, Nis, where post-election protests first broke out, ruled that the coalition Zajedno had won Nov. 17 municipal elections.

Dec. 16: For the first time in his presidency, President Clinton, responding to a question at a news conference, said Jewish settlements were “absolutely” an obstacle to peace. “It just stands to reason,” Clinton also said in discussing the resumption of financial incentives for Jewish settlers, “that anything that pre-empts the outcome of something that both parties have agreed should be part of the final negotiations cannot be helpful in making peace.”

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators resumed talks on Hebron and other issues 10 days after talks had broken off.

Following a “Friends of Lebanon” meeting at the State Department, the U.S., along with representatives of 28 other countries and 8 international bodies, announced an immediate infusion of $1 billion, and ultimately of $2.2 billion, in development assistance, reconstruction loans, military equipment and police training.

Dec. 17: Serbian President Milosevic met for 15 minutes with student protesters who had walked 148 miles to Belgrade to demand the restoration of Nov. 17 municipal election results.

Dec.18: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC) and House International Relations Committee chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, criticized President Clinton’s remarks about Israel’s settlements policy, saying, “There are those who insist that it is incumbent upon the State of Israel to make all the sacrifices for peace. Do not count us among such people.”

Rolf Ekeus, chairman of the U.N.’s special commission on disarming Iraq, said Baghdad may be hiding some 18 to 25 operational missiles, rather than the 16 previously estimated.

Dec. 19: Saying, “The Israelis have made some moves, and it’s time for the Palestinians to reciprocate,” outgoing Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced he was sending special envoy Dennis Ross to the region to “re-energize this effort.”

Dec. 20: As NATO commanders formally launched the new multinational Stabilization Force in Bosnia, an international delegation arrived in Belgrade to urge Serbian President Milosevic to respect the results of Nov. 17 municipal elections.

Broadcasting the alleged confessions of four Iraqis, Baghdad announced it had uncovered a CIA-sponsored espionage ring.

Dec. 21: Concluding a four-day visit to Turkey, Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Necmattin Erbakan signed a series of agreements doubling the volume of trade between the two countries to $2 billion.

Dec. 22: As U.S. special envoy Dennis Ross, whom Palestinian President Yasser Arafat recently characterized as biased in favor of Israel, met separately with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers in Hebron.

Dec. 23: Palestinian and Israeli negotiators met throughout the night in an attempt to reach an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Hebron.

Reflecting the position of former Bosnian Serb leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, Bosnian Serb leaders said they would not participate in Bosnia’s new national government.

In Moscow, the president of Tajikistan, Emamali Rakhmonov, and opposition leader Sayed Abdullo Nuri signed a power-sharing agreement to take effect July 1.

Dec. 24: Meeting at the Erez Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Arafat failed to reach an agreement on Israel’s promised withdrawal from Hebron.

The U.S. accused Serbian President Milosevic of organizing and inciting supporters who battled anti-government demonstrators in the streets of Belgrade, killing one demonstrator.

Dec. 25: Turkey’s parliament agreed to permit continued basing of U.S and British planes patrolling the “no-fly” zone over northern Iraq.

Dec. 26: Despite the banning of demonstrations, a heavy police presence and bitter cold, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets of Belgrade for the 37th day.

Dec. 27: Felipe Gonzalez, former Spanish prime minister and special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told Serbian President Milosevic to reinstate the results of Nov. 17 municipal elections.

France announced it would end its participation in patrolling the “no-fly” zone over northern Iraq, although it would continue patrols over southern Iraq.

Dec. 28: Hebron’s Islamic University was reopened after a 10-month closure by the Israeli army.

In Belgrade, some 10,000 anti-government opponents attended the funeral of 39-year-old Predrag Starcevic, killed by supporters of Serbian President Milosevic earlier in the week.

Dec. 29: Reportedly on the verge of an agreement for Israeli troop withdrawal from Hebron, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel alone will patrol the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Two hours before a car bomb exploded in Algiers wounding at least 20 people, Islamic militants sealed off the village of Ain Defla, 30 miles south of the Algerian capital, and slashed and hacked to death 28 people over two hours.

Dec. 30: Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation, staged a nationwide strike to protest budget cuts proposed by the Netanyahu government.

Dec. 31: In response to recent terrorist threats, Saudi Arabia increased security around U.S. facilities based there.

Syria’s Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam was quoted in the Beirut newspaper As-Safir as saying that, in Syrian-Israeli talks held outside Washington during the past four years, the United States had given written commitments concerning Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders. “We will not accept any negotiations below this limit,” Khaddam said. “We are waiting for the United States to keep these commitments.”