Washington Report, May 19, 1986, Page 7

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

April 17:

Gunmen holding Britons Leigh Douglas and Philip Padfield as well as American Peter Kilburn in Lebanon murdered their captives in retaliation for the U.S. air raid against Libya earlier in the week. In a message left with the bodies, a group calling itself the Arab Commando Cell warned that "American and British terrorists will be targets for our attacks" in the future.

April 18:

Almost 300 dependents of American Embassy officials and other non-essential personnel were evacuated to Kenya from Sudan because of concern for their safety following the wounding of a U.S. Embassy employee in Khartoum.

April 21:

The U.S. Justice Department formally notified Congress that it does not intend to attempt to prosecute PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat for allegedly ordering the May 1973 murder of two U.S. diplomats in Khartoum. In February a group of 44 U.S. Senators had sent a letter to the department requesting that it consider such a move.

April 21:

Foreign ministers from the 12 member-nations of the European Economic Community (EEC) agreed to impose restrictions on the size and activities of Libyan diplomatic missions in Western Europe. EEC sources said the joint action was designed to reduce the possibility of further unilateral U.S. military action against Libya.

April 21:

The U.S., Britain, and France vetoed a resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would have condemned the American military attack against Libya.

April 22:

Police in West Berlin arrested Ahmad Nawaf Mansour Hasi in connection with the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin discotheque that prompted the U.S. military strike against Libya. Earlier, Hasi's younger brother, Nizar Hinclawi, was arrested in Britain and charged with conspiring to blow up an Israeli El Al jumbo jet while en route from England to Israel.

April 22:

U.S. authorities charged 17 people—including Avaraham Bar-Am, a retired Israeli general—with plotting to sell more than two billion dollars of advanced U.S. weaponry to Iran. The deal was to have included missiles, fighter planes, helicopters, howitzers, cluster bombs, aircraft engines and other military equipment, much of it already in Israel. Bar-Am claimed he was acting with Israeli Government approval while the Israeli Government denied knowledge of a plot that U.S. Attorney Rudolph W. Guiliani called "mindboggling in scope."

April 23:

President Reagan said he was prepared to use military force against Syria or Iran if presented with solid evidence that either of those governments had approved or supported an act of terrorism against Americans. Speaking to a group of U.S. newspaper columnists and commentators, Reagan said: "State-controlled terrorism is a form of warfare, and you can't just sit by and let somebody else declare war on you and pretend that you're at peace."

April 23:

The Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees voted in favor of legislation disapproving the proposed sale of $354 million in advanced U.S. weaponry to Saudi Arabia. The Senate committee voted 11 to 6 in favor of a resolution introduced by Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) to prohibit the sale, while the House committee approved a similar measure put forward by Representative Mel Levine (D-CA). Meanwhile, Secretary of State George P. Shultz met with the entire Senate in a closed door session to argue for the sale's passage, saying that its approval was necessary in order to reestablish "our reliability and credibility as a security partner" of Saudi Arabia.

April 24:

ABC television quoted a U.S. State Department intelligence analysis saying that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is "more dangerous" now than before the mid-April U.S. air raid and that the Libyan leader is seeking "personal" revenge against President Reagan for the death of his adopted daughter and the wounding of his two youngest sons.

April 25:

Walter F. Mondale, the 1984 Democratic presidential nominee, said the U.S. should indict Libya's Qaddafi and post a reward for his apprehension if the government has evidence linking the Libyan leader to killings of U.S. citizens.

April 25:

Secretary of State Shultz said the U.S. should consider using covert action, in conjunction with expanded economic sanctions and the threat of further military action, in order to weaken the Libyan government.

April 25:

Arthur L. Pollick, an American communications officer at the U.S. Embassy in North Yemen, was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen in the North Yemeni capital of Sanaa. U.S. State Department officials claimed that there was no connection between this shooting and the mid-April U.S. air strike against Libya.

April 28:

Attorney General Meese said he would discuss with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the F.B.I. whether the number of Libyan nationals in the U.S. should be reduced in order to lessen the possibility of domestic terrorist activity.

May 5:

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger signed a memorandum of understanding in which the Israeli government agreed to work with the U.S. on the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)—otherwise known as the "Star Wars" program. Commenting on the Israeli decision to join the U.S. program, Rabin said: "We expect to do the things within this research and development program in the way that it will help our own problems along." Israel's decision to join the U.S. SDI followed similar decisions in the past year by Britain and West Germany to join the American research effort.

May 5:

Leaders of the West's seven largest industrial nations—the U.S., Japan, West Germany, Britain, France, Canada, and Italy—meeting in Tokyo at their annual economic summit vowed to fight terrorism "relentlessly and without compromise." The seven also agreed to support a U.S. sponsored resolution that named Libya as a principal source of statesponsored terrorism. Commenting on these developments, U.S. Secretary of State Shultz called the document "a terrific statement" that will send a message to Qaddafi: "You've had it, pal." Despite these signs of agreement, at a press conference at the end of the summit meeting, President Reagan said that the U.S. still reserved the right to act unilaterally to combat state-sponsored terrorism. Reagan also confirmed that the five U.S. oil companies still operating in Libya must discontinue their operations there by the end of June.

May 6:

The Senate voted 73 to 22 to disapprove the Reagan Administration's planned sale of $354 million dollars of advanced U.S. weaponry to Saudi Arabia. The 73 to 22 margin was more than enough, if sustained, to override a presidential veto.

May 7:

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly—by a margin of 356 to 62—to disapprove the Administration's proposed arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The House votes exceeded by some 67 votes the number needed to override a presidential veto. White House spokesman Larry Speakes stated: "It is the president's intention to veto this resolution and to work actively with members of both houses of Congress to sustain that veto."