Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1987, page 22

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

February 4:

The White House joined the Departments of State and Defense in opposing the Arms Control Reform Act, better known as the Biden-Levine Bill, named after its co-sponsors Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) and Representative Mel Levine (D-CA). This legislation would make it easier for Congress to veto proposed Presidential arms sales to all Arab states except Egypt.

February 6:

The Iranian government released Wall Street Journal reporter Gerald F. Seib after he had spent four days in an Iranian jail. Seib was not charged with any offense.

February 8:

The Washington Post reported that when Amiram Nir, counter-terrorism advisor to Israel's then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres, met in July, 1986 with Vice President George Bush in Jerusalem, Nir told Bush that "we are dealing with the most radical elements" in Iran. On the sale of arms to Iran, Nir said "We (Israel) activated the channel; we gave a front to the operation, provided a physical base, provided aircraft."

February 10:

In his first speech in three months, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini said Iran's war with Iraq was a "divine cause," and pledged that Iran would continue to "make war until victory."

February 11:

Published newspaper reports said that the Amal militia's four-month siege of the Shatila and Burj al-Barajneh refugee camps south of Beirut was forcing thousands of Palestinians there to eat cats, dogs, and donkeys in order to survive.

February 11:

Iraqi jets bombed 13 Iranian cities in an all-out offensive designed to force Iran to negotiate an end to the six-and-a-half year-old Iran-Iraq war.

February 12:

A United Nations report issued in Geneva estimated that, since 1979, Iran has executed 7,000 of its citizens, most of them opponents of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

February 12:

Syrian troops stormed the Damascus offices of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine after the group appeared to move closer to Yasir Arafat's mainstream PLO.

February 15:

After receiving wide support from Egyptian voters, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dissolved Egypt's parliament and set new elections for April 6.

February 16:

For the first time in a year, official representatives of Jordan and the PLO met in Amman to discuss developments in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

February 19:

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir left Washington after three days of talks with Reagan administration officials. On the last day of his trip, Shamir said Israel would participate in an international conference only if it was limited to Israel, the US, Jordan, Egypt, and Palestinians from the occupied territories. Before Shamir left Israel for Washington, it was announced that the US upgraded Israel's status to that of a "non-NATO ally," which allowed Israel to bid on US military contracts.

February 20:

The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times reported that in the summer of 1985 the State Department acted to block a White House plan to persuade Egypt to participate in a joint US-Egyptian invasion of Libya.

February 22:

Syria militarily intervened in West Beirut after a week of fierce battles between Amal and Druse-communist alliance. The battles killed an estimated 300 and wounded 1,300.

February 24:

The Washington Post reported that Jordan's King Hussein and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak cancelled scheduled visits to the US in protest against US arms sales to Iran. Both Jordan and Egypt are close allies of Iraq.

February 26:

Syrian forces closed 70 militia offices in West Beirut, killing 23 pro-Iranian militia-men in he process.

February 26

An investigative commission headed by former Republican Senator John Tower and including former Democratic Senator and Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft released a 300-page report on its investigation of the Iran-Israel-Contra scandal. The report sharply criticized President Reagan's tendency to delegate to others fundamental aspects of national security policy-making. The report noted that "Israel had its own interests (in the affair), some in direct conflict with those of the United States." The report also noted that "at critical points," Israel kept the arm initiative alive after US officials tried to end it.

February 27:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres concluded two days of talks in Cairo with a pledge to try to convene an international peace conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict before the end of 1987. Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Shamir clashed over the issue.

March 2:

Israel objected to an American proposal to "borrow" $30 million of Israel's current $3 billion grant aid package for use in raising the quality of life in the occupied West Bank.

March 3:

Israeli Air Force officer Aviem Sella was indicted by a US court on espionage charges for his role in recruiting US Navy counter-intelligence specialist Jonathan Jay Pollard to spy for Israel. Since espionage is not an extraditable offense, Sella will not be extradited from Israel to face the US charges. In late February, after Sella was informed by the US Justice Department that he might be indicted for his role in the Pollard spy scandal, he was put in command of Israel's second largest air base.

March 4:

Admitted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment for selling thousands of pages of top secret US intelligence documents to Israel. His wife, Anne Henderson-Pollard, received two concurrent five-year sentences. In a statement several days before his sentencing, Pollard, disputing Israel's contention that his was a "rogue operation," said that his handlers' "extremely detailed" requests for classified information showed a "highly coordinated" espionage effort involving Israel's "naval, army, and air force intelligence services."

March 9:

PLO military commander Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) met in Libya with George Habash of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Both groups had broken with Yasir Arafat's majority Al-Fatah wing of the PLO, and this was the first meeting in four years between the leaders of the three groups.