May 1990, Page 28

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

March 1: Secretary of State Baker, testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Israel's request for $400 million in loan guarantees for Soviet immigrant housing, said Israel would have to provide "some assurances that these funds will not be used to create new settlements or expand old settlements in the occupied territories."

In an appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Defense Secretary Richard Cheney defended an administration plan to give 700 surplus US battle tanks to Egypt, saying they would replace aging Soviet tanks. Cheney also stated that Israel had been consulted and had no objections to the plan.

March 2: Israeli military authorities informed both the domestic and foreign press that "all material pertaining to the immigration of Soviet Jews must be submitted to the censor prior to publication."

Following the death of 35 people in pro independence demonstrations in the majority Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, an indefinite curfew was imposed and Indian troops were ordered to shoot violators.

March 3: President Bush, asked about the settlement of Soviet Jews in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, stated that "the foreign policy of the United States says we do not believe there should be new settlements in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem."

Iran's English-language daily Kayhan International said two Americans jailed in Iran could be released in exchange for three American Muslims imprisoned in the US.

March 4: Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa met with Iranian diplomat Mahmoud Hashemi, brother of President Rafsanjani, to discuss Western hostages held in Lebanon.

March 6: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Likud Party voted to enter talks with Palestinian representatives if its coalition-partner Labor Party pledged support for undivided Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and exclusion of the PLO from negotiations. Labor Party leader Shimon Peres rejected these terms.

Government forces put down a coup attempt against Afghan President Najibullah, reportedly led by Defense Minister Shahnawaz Tanai, who escaped by air to Pakistan.

March 7: The Bush administration refused to rule out military action against Libya, as it called for "vigorous efforts" to stop the alleged production of poison gas at a chemical plant about 60 miles from the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani denied that direct talks on the fate of the hostages had been held with the US.

March 8: The US decided to sell Israel a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system, the first such system to be introduced by a superpower into the Middle East.

Seven Arab women were injured when Israeli police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a demonstration in observance of International Women's Day. The police said they used force because the Palestinian women, who numbered several dozen, did not have a permit for their march.

March 9: The Israeli government announced plans to build 4,000 apartments, about half to be located in East Jerusalem, to house Soviet Jewish immigrants.

March 11: Former US President JimmyCarter began a nine-day tour of the Middle East in an effort to revive peace efforts in the region. Carter was scheduled to visit Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Israel.

The Arab League agreed in principle to reopen its headquarters in Cairo, which it had moved to Tunis following Egypt's signing of the 1979 Camp David agreement.

March 13: Unable to agree on terms for conducting talks with Palestinian representatives, the Israeli coalition government collapsed when Prime Minister Shamir fired deputy prime minister and Labor Party leader Shimon Peres.

March 14: A fire of undetermined origin was reported in a Libyan plant alleged to be producing chemical weapons. Israel and the US denied involvement in the blaze; the extent of the damage was not known.

March 15: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's government lost a parliamentary vote of no-confidence by a vote of 60-55, with five abstentions.

Iraq hanged Iranian-born London Observer reporter Farzad Bazott, whom it accused of spying for Israel and Britain. The British government recalled its ambassador to Baghdad and halted all ministerial visits.

March 19: Former President Jimmy Carter, in Jerusalem as part of his visit to the Middle East, criticized Israel for its human rights abuses in trying to put down the Palestinian intifada. Carter also relayed a message from Syrian President Hafez al-Assad that Syria was willing to open peace talks with Israel and negotiate the future of the Golan Heights.

March 20: Israeli President Chaim Herzog asked Labor Party leader Shimon Peres to form a new coalition government.

The US State Department, in a required report to Congress, confirmed "that the PLO has adhered to its commitment undertaken in 1988 to renounce terrorism."

March 23: An Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, quoted US Defense Department sources as saying the Bush administration has evidence of Israeli military advisors in Ethiopia.

March 24: Renewed fighting between the rival Christian troops of Gen. Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea ended the latest cease-fire.

March 26: Libya warned ships entering the central Mediterranean of maneuvers being conducted by the US Sixth Fleet and announced its "non-responsibility for what is happening."

March 28: A shipment of US-made krytron devices bound for Iraq was seized by British customs officials, who arrested two Iraqi citizens and three accomplices. Iraq denied that it was trying to make nuclear weapons. El A US missionary in Israel's "security zone" in southern Lebanon was killed by three gunmen who broke into his home. William Robinson, a fundamentalist Christian layman, ran a home for handicapped children and was believed by many Shi'i Lebanese to be trying to buy land to establish a Jewish settlement in the area.

March 29: Classified US intelligence reports revealed that Iraq has constructed missile launchers capable of reaching Tel Aviv and Damascus, intended in part to discourage any Israeli attack, American experts believe.

March 30: A senior Israeli immigration official said the number of Soviet Jewish immigrants showed "a slight decrease" for the first time since the current wave began arriving late last year.

Land Day, commemorating resistance by Palestinians within Israel to forced sales and confiscation of their lands, was observed by thousands of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories.

A federal indictment accused four Iraqis and a French citizen of conspiring to smuggle into Iraq 40 US-made devices capable of detonating a nuclear warhead. The indictments were the result of an elaborate sting operation conducted by US authorities.