May/June 1991, Page 50

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Mar. 1: Jordan's King Hussein, in a nationwide broadcast, called for postwar unity and reconciliation among Arabs.

Mar. 3: Following a two-hour meeting with Iraqi military leaders, US Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf reported that Iraq accepted all allied terms for formally ending the Gulf war.

-Secretary of State James Baker on the eve of a trip to the Middle East, said the US would not "impose" a solution to the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Mar. 6: Speaking before a joint session of Congress, President Bush announced the beginning of US troop withdrawal from the Gulf and re-emphasized US commitment to UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for a land-for-peace solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

-Amid reports of spreading rebellions, Iraqi President Saddam Hussain appointed his cousin, Ali Hassan Al-Majid, who oversaw the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, as the new interior minister, and Iraqi officials announced that Western journalists would be temporarily expelled from the country.

-In a reversal of previous policy, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Israel was willing to hold talks with Arab countries that have not yet recognized Israel.

Mar. 7: UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar appointed Edouard Brunner, Switzerland's ambassador to the US, as his special Middle East representative.

Mar. 9: The US warned Iraq not to use chemical weapons against rebelling Shi'i rebels in Southern Iraq.

Mar. 10: Following a meeting with US Secretary of State Baker in Riyadh, eight Arab foreign ministers called for Israeli concessions on the occupied territories and a UN-sponsored peace conference.

- An internal Israeli Housing Ministry report contained plans for more than 10,000 housing units for Soviet immigrants to be built in the occupied territories.

Mar. 11: Lebanese security sources reported that the 13 Western hostages being held by pro-Iranian Muslim extremists had been moved from Beirut's southern slums to hideouts in the Bekaa Valley.

Mar. 12: Secretary of State Baker, pursuing a "two-track" peace initiative, met with Israeli Prime Minister Shamir and later with 10 Palestinian leaders from the occupied territories during his first visit to Israel.

-King Hussein of Jordan said his country would be willing to participate in peace talks but would not act as a substitute for the PLO.

-Kuwait and the US agreed to open an allied air base on Bubiyan Island in the Persian Gulf, an island Iraq claimed the right to lease prior to its Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Mar. 13: Iraqi rebel groups reported battling helicopter gunships and tanks in several Iraqi cities, including Baghdad.

Mar. 14: Kuwait's Emir Jabir Ahmed Sabah returned to his country after seven months in exile, as deported Palestinians and other foreigners told of being detained and tortured by Kuwaiti soldiers and resistance fighters.

Mar. 16: Iraqi President Saddam Hussain said the Shi'i uprising in the south had been put down, and announced broad political reforms.

Mar. 17: Avi Popper, the Israeli ex-soldier who machine-gunned seven Palestinian workers to death last May, was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms in prison by a Tel Aviv District Court.

Mar. 18: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's first public call for direct talks between Israel and the PLO was rejected by Israeli and US officials. Israeli Prime Minister Shamir also said the 10 Palestinian leaders who had met with Secretary of State Baker in Jerusalem were unacceptable negotiating partners, and rejected a suggestion from a fellow Likud Party member that Israel consider giving up the Golan Heights.

Mar. 20: The Kuwaiti government resigned amid widespread criticism of the slow pace of reconstruction.

-Former US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that, in their July 25th meeting, she repeatedly warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussain against using force to settle his dispute with Kuwait.

-A US fighter jet shot down an Iraqi warplane in the first aerial combat since hostilities ceased three weeks ago. Meanwhile, Speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly Saadi Medhi Saleh accused Iran of sending "saboteurs" to foment the uprising against President Saddam Hussain.

-Over President Bush's objections, the Senate voted to eliminate US aid to Jordan.

Mar. 21: US military officials estimated the number of Iraqi soldiers killed in the six week Gulf war to beat least 100,000, while a UN survey of civilian damage caused by the allied bombardment of Iraq called the results "near apocalyptic."

-As a US Air Force fighter downed a second Iraqi warplane, US Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces would remain in Southern Iraq "for some months to come. "

Mar. 23: Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Sharon called for the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, while a US State Department report said Soviet Jewish immigrants are settling in the occupied territories at a rate four times higher than reported by the Israeli government.

-Iraqi President Saddam Hussain reshuffled his cabinet, naming Saadoun Haamadi, a Shi'i Muslim, as new prime minister. Tariq Aziz was replaced as foreign minister, but remains deputy prime minister.

Mar. 24: US officials said the number of Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles that escaped destruction by allied forces was much greater than originally thought, and that many of the weapons have been used against Iraqi insurgents.

-Israel deported four Palestinian activists following Arab knife attacks against Israeli Jews.

Mar. 25: Israeli police arrested Robert and Rachel Manning, an American-Israeli couple wanted for the 1981 package-bomb murder of a secretary in California and suspected of murdering Alex Odeh, Los Angeles regional director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, by booby trapping the door to the ADC office in 1985.

Mar. 27: Israelis were encouraged to "shoot to kill" Arab assailants of Israeli civilians, following the killing of a Jewish settler in the West Bank. The UN Security Council issued a statement deploring recent deportations, saying it is "gravely concerned" about Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

-Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani categorically denied providing troops or other military assistance to Iraqi rebels.

Mar. 28: Baghdad Radio claimed that government forces recaptured the city of Kirkuk from Kurdish rebels, as the leader of a major Shi'i opposition group said its supporters had been forced to withdraw from virtually all cities and towns in Southern Iraq.

Mar. 31: The Israeli Cabinet approved sharp restrictions on the entry of Palestinians into Israel and an increase in collective punishments and deportations.