A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

April 2:

The Congress received a State Department report naming those states which have violated the international arms embargo against apartheid South Africa. The report determined that Israel had provided "regular" and "large-scale" military assistance to South Africa. The legislation mandating this report also provided for the possibility of a cut-off in US aid to those countries found to be in violation of the international arms embargo, but a last-minute compromise involving the Israel lobby and Jewish and Black Members of Congress prevented the issue from being raised.

April 3:

Former President Jimmy Carter returned from a 16-day trip to the Middle East, in which he visited Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and the occupied territories. Speaking in Cairo, Carter criticized the Reagan administration's "missing leadership" regarding the Middle East. Carter also said Middle Eastern leaders have lacked the "courage, tenacity, and dedication" needed to continue the peace process. Speaking with Palestinian journalists in East Jerusalem, Carter said he supports "the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people."

April 6:

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met with Palestinian and Soviet delegates to a Socialist International conference held in Italy. The Palestinian delegation consisted of Al-Fajr editor Hanna Siniora and Gaza lawyer Fayez Abu-Rahme. After three days of meetings with Soviet officials, Peres described the talks as "the first serious and direct dialogue" between Israel and the USSR.

April 6:

Despite charges of scattered violence and voter fraud, Egyptians re-elected the National Democratic Party in parliamentary elections, providing an endorsement for President Hosni Mubarak.

April 7:

Syrian soldiers entered the Shatila refugee camp, south of Beirut, ending a five-month siege by the pro-Syrian Shiite Amal militia. Nearly 100 residents of Shatila died during the siege. Amal tried to prevent a resurgence in Lebanon of Palestinian forces loyal to PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat.

April 8:

Speaking before a Herut Party audience, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said that Shimon Peres' efforts to convene an international peace conference on the Arab-Israeli dispute were "insane" and "a monstrous idea."

April 8:

After two days of high-level meetings with Reagan administration officials, Jordanian Prime Minister Zaid Rifai said that there could be no peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict without a full-fledged international peace conference which included the PLO. Noting the administration's unwillingness to supply Jordan with improved Hawk anti-aircraft missile batteries, Rifai also said that Jordan would no longer rely solely on the US for its arms. At a separate press conference, Secretary of State George Shultz said that an international conference would only be effective if it led immediately to bilateral negotiations between Israel and Jordan over the West Bank.

April 11:

Unknown assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at a Jewish settler's car near the West Bank village of Kalkilya, killing one woman and injuring five. In response, Jewish settlers stormed through the Arab village, smashing windows and vandalizing cars. In addition, the Israeli army bulldozed several rows of orange trees alongside the highway, close to where the attack took place. The next day, Israeli soldiers arrested nine prominent local Palestinians; in the demonstrations that followed the arrests, soldiers killed one Palestinian and wounded at least three others. Israeli military authorities also closed all five Palestinian colleges and universities.

April 12:

A State Department study showed that the number and ferocity of terrorist attacks worldwide was virtually the same in 1986 as in 1985.

April 12:

In an interview with the New York Times, Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi suggested he was interested in a "rapprochement" with the US.

April 14

Saudi Arabia's King Fahd began a series of official visits to European countries to discuss plans to upgrade the Saudi Arabian navy using Western European equipment and expertise. Contracts involved are estimated to total more than $4 billion.

April 19:

Two Israeli soldiers and three Palestinian guerrillas were killed in a shoot-out in northern Israel. It was the first time in seven years that Palestinian commandos successfully penetrated Israel's heavily fortified northern border.

April 26:

Meeting in Algeria, the Palestine National Council, the Palestinians' "parliament in exile," ended in unity with the re-election of Yasir Arafat as Chairman of the Executive Committee. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, both of which had walked out of the PLO to protest Arafat's 1983 rapprochement with Egypt, re-joined the PLO. An attempt to limit Arafat's power as Chairman of the Executive Committee was defeated. The PNC also cancelled the 1985 Jordanian-Palestinian agreement on political coordination and criticized the Egyptian peace agreement with Israel, which followed the Camp David accords. In response, Egypt closed most of the PLO offices in Cairo and Alexandria.

April 27:

Israel delivered a financial report on its role in the Iran-contra scandal to its embassy in Washington, but embassy officials refused to release the report to congressional investigators without assurances that it would not be made public and that Israeli citizens would receive immunity from criminal prosecution. After examining the financial chronology, Congressional investigators and officials from independent counsel Lawrence Walsh's office began negotiating with the Israeli embassy on the conditions under which they would receive copies of the document.

April 28:

Israeli newspapers reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin met secretly with Jordan's King Hussein to discuss plans for an international peace conference, which would lead to bilateral Israeli-Jordanian negotiations over the West Bank. In a later interview with the Boston Globe, Hussein denied reports that he would negotiate directly with Israel and said that the PLO was the Palestinians' legitimate representative.

May 4:

It was reported that at the end of April, Jordan's King Hussein hosted two days of meetings between Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Israeli Middle East specialists speculated that these meetings could lead to tacit Syrian neutrality in the Iran-Iraq war, now in its seventh year. Syria and Libya are the only Arab League member states supporting Iran in the war.

May 4:

Lebanese Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigned after three years as head of Lebanon's cabinet. In his letter of resignation, Karami referred to the divisions in Lebanon's armed forces and Lebanon's worsening financial situation. It was not immediately clear whether President Amin Gemayel would accept Karami's resignation.