Washington Report, June 16, 1986, Page 14

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

May 7:

International arms trade specialists asserted that 50 U.S.-built Stinger ground-to-air missiles being sent clandestinely to South Africa were diverted during shipment last year and are now in Libya, Syria, and Iran.

May 12:

The Reagan Administration warned Congress that its decision to disapprove the proposed sale of $354 million in advanced U.S. weaponry to Saudi Arabia had encouraged Iran to intensify attacks on neutral shipping in the Gulf region.

May 13:

President Reagan, beginning his lobbying effort in the wake of a Congressional vote prohibiting the sale of $354 in advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia, told Senate and House Republican leaders that "the consequences of our refusing this sale would, in my view, send a signal throughout the Middle East to the serious detriment of our interests there for many years to come."

May 14:

In a speech to the Overseas Writers Club, U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz said that if the U.S. can prove that the Syrian government is involved in terrorist attacks against Americans or U.S. interests, "we will do something about it."

May 15:

U.S. officials arrested two Israelis—Zeev Reiss, a reserve Army lieutenant colonel, and Gil Silva—in New York and charged them with conspiring to sell approximately 4,000 U.S.-made, wire-guided TOW antitank missiles either to Iran or Iraq.

May 17:

In an interview with Western newsmen, Syrian President Hafez Assad said the U.S. air strike against Libya "won a lot of hatred" for the U.S. in the Arab world. Assad also said his government had made "serious efforts" to secure the release of the American hostages being held by unidentified gunmen in Lebanon.

May 19:

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) said that campaign contributions from supporters of Israel "are a substantial factor" behind the reluctance of both Democratic and Republican Senators to consider the Administration's arguments in support of the proposed Saudi weapons sale.

May 20:

The Reagan Administration announced that it had withdrawn the proposed sale of 800 Stinger ground-to-air missiles and 200 Stinger missile launchers from the overall military aid package to Saudi Arabia.

May 21:

President Reagan vetoed the Congressional measure blocking the Administration's proposed weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, saying disapproval of the sale "would send the worst possible message as to America's dependability and courage" and would "damage our vital strategic, political and economic interests in the Middle East."

May 24:

President Reagan nominated Frank G. Wisner, currently serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, to be Ambassador to Egypt and G. Norman Anderson, currently serving as deputy chief of mission in Tunisia, to be Ambassador to Sudan.

May 24:

The Lebanese daily An Nahar reported that Vice President George Bush promised U.S. military aid to opponents of the new hardline Soviet-backed regime in South Yemen during his mid-April visit to the North Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

May 28:

The government of Bermuda deported five men, including retired Israeli Brigadier General Avraham Bar-Am, to the U.S. to face charges of plotting to sell $2.1 billion of advanced, primarily U.S. weaponry to Iran.

June 4:

Former U.S. Navy counter-intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard pled guilty to Federal charges of spying for Israel. One U.S. official said that as part of a plea bargain arrangement, Pollard and his wife, Anne Henderson Pollard, agreed to cooperate fully with U.S. authorities to uncover the extent of the Israeli espionage network in the United States. Four Israelis were also indicted in connection with the Pollard affair. Despite Israeli government assertions that this was a "deviation" from official Israeli policy not to spy on the U.S., one Administration official said: "it was supposed to be a 10-year operation for $300,000. How can anything this big and involving this much money not be authorized? The raw data on the record suggests very strongly that the operation had higher authority."

June 5:

The Senate voted 66 to 34 to sustain President Reagan's veto of an earlier Congressional resolution banning the Administration's proposed $265 million missile sale to Saudi Arabia.