June 1994, Page 103

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

March 1: Four days after the Hebron massacre, Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners and promised a crackdown on extremist Jewish settlers, moves the PLO called "cosmetic."

• In Washington, Bosnian Prime Minister Haris SilaJdzic, Bosnian Croat leader Kresimir and Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic signed an agreement creating a federation between Bosnian Croats and the government, eventually to form an economic union with neighboring Croatia. Bosnian Serbs, who did not participate in the agreement, yielded to Russian pressure and agreed to open the airport near the besieged town of Tuzla for the delivery of relief supplies.

March 2: U.S. President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in separate remarks, urged PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to return to the negotiating table, while rejecting PLO demands for measures to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians and wounded dozens more as protests continued in the occupied territories.

• On the second day of his visit to Russia, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic accused the U.S. of usurping the role of the United Nations in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, calling Russia a more "impartial and reliable" mediator.

March 3: As Israel released 400 Palestinian prisoners, Prime Minister Rabin announced he was negotiating with the right-wing Tsomet Party, which opposes the PLO-Israeli accord, in an effort to broaden his coalition government. El The chief of the U.N. mission in Bosnia, Yasushi Akashi, said an additional 11,000 troops were needed to enforce cease-fires in Sarajavo and in central and southern Bosnia.

March 4: A federal jury in New York convicted defendants Mohammed Salameh, Ahmad M. Ajaj, Nidal Ayyad and Mahmud Abouhalima of the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. A leader of Egypt's militant Islamic Group said it would "find any American here in Egypt that it can get its hands on to hunt in retaliation."

• On the Friday following the Feb. 25 Hebron massacre, Israelis killed three Palestinians, while police in Jerusalem temporarily closed the Western Wall and restricted access to Al Aqsa mosque.

March 5 :Bosnian Croats and Muslims established joint checkpoints with U.N. troops in central Bosnia as part of a cease-fire agreement, while Serb forces, reportedly trying to sabotage the agreement, shelled Muslim and Croat positions in the region.

March 6: The Israeli cabinet debated removing Jewish settlers from Hebron.

March 7: In Cairo, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Israeli negotiators for the first time since the Hebron massacre.

• Bosnian Croat and government forces pulled their heavy weapons back from front lines in central and southern Bosnia.

• Kazakhstan elected its first post-Soviet parliament.

March 8: At the opening session of the official Israeli inquiry into the Feb. 25 Hebron massacre, Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, the army commander for the West Bank, testified that security had been lax, adding that the army had not anticipated the possibility of settler acts of terrorism.

March 9: Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said nearly 50,000 U.S. troops would be needed to enforce a peace accord in Bosnia. The Clinton administration had earlier estimated the number to be 15,000 to 45,000 troops.

March 10: The commander of Israeli border police in Hebron told an official commission of inquiry that security forces were under orders never to fire at Jewish settlers.

• The Clinton administration was reported to be insisting that the PLO return to peace talks with Israel before the U.S. would agree to a U.N. resolution condemning the Hebron massacre.

March 13: The Israeli government outlawed the radical Jewish Kach and Kahane Chai movements.

March 15: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, speaking at the annual AIPAC convention in Washington, DC, rejected PLO conditions for returning to peace talks with Israel.

March 16: At a joint White House news conference, President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin urged the PLO to resume negotiations with Israel and indicated that U.S. -Syrian relations might improve if Damascus resumed talks leading to an agreement with Israel.

March 17: Testifying before the Israeli commission of inquiry into the Hebron massacre, an Israeli soldier on duty that day said he saw a second armed settler enter the Ibrahimi mosque with Dr. Baruch Goldstein.

• Bosnian government and Serb leaders signed an agreement allowing limited movement for people, food and medical supplies along siege lines in Sarajevo.

March 18: The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution condemning the Hebron massacre, voting paragraph by paragraph at the insistance of the U.S., which abstained on two key paragraphs, one of which referred to Jerusalem as occupied territory. Following the vote, Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced that Israel and the PLO would meet to discuss the resumption of negotiations, and that Syria, Lebanon and Jordan had agreed to resume talks with Israel in Washington.

March 20: Tunisia's ruling Democratic Constitutional Assembly won nationwide parliamentary elections, with opposition parties guaranteed at least 19 seats in the 163-seat body, and President Zine Abidine Ben Ali was reelected to a second five-year term.

March 21: In Tunis, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Israeli Foreign Ministry official Uri Savir and U.S. State Department coordinator Dennis Ross to discuss increased protection for Palestinians in the occupied territories as a precondition for the resumption of peace talks with Israel.

Palestinian survivors of the Hebron massacre told the Israeli commission of inquiry that shots had come from more than one source.

Rival Somali clan leaders meeting in Nairobi, Kenya agreed to form an interim government and sign a "declaration of national reconciliation."

March 22: The Clinton administration proposed a $658 million sale of 38 F-16s to Pakistan in return for Islamabad's acceptance of international inspection of key nuclear facilities as proof that it is no longer engaged in a weapons program.

• U.N. relief supplies were delivered to Tuzla, ending the besieged Bosnian city's two years of isolation.

• The Jordanian government protested the stricter searches of ships entering Aqaba as part of a U.S.-led tightening of the trade embargo against Iraq.

March 23: President Clinton rejected a plea for clemency from Jonathan Jay Pollard, the U.S. naval intelligence analyst sentenced to life in prison for spying for Israel.

• In Hebron, five Palestinians were reported killed by Israeli forces firing rockets and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in an 18-hour attack on an apartment building suspected of housing Hamas militants. One of the victims was a pregnant woman who was struck as she looked out of the window of a nearby building.

March 24: Israel agreed to allow lightly armed international observers and joint Israeli-Palestinian patrols in Hebron.

• Lebanese government troops raided the offices of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia suspected of a church bombing in Jounieh, confiscating more than 300 weapons, and imposed a news blackout on independent radio and television broadcasts.

• Somali peace talks taking place in Kenya collapsed.

March 25: The remaining 1, 100 U.S. Marines in Somalia left Mogadishu, ending U.S. participation in the U.N. peacekeeping effort.

March 26: The self-proclaimed Bosnian Croat parliament voted to approve the creation of a Bosnian Croat-Muslim federation.

March 27: OPEC ministers meeting in Geneva failed to reach an agreement lowering oil production in response to the fall in petroleum prices.

• F-1 Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party out polled its rival Motherland Party in countrywide local elections, while the pro-Islamist Welfare Party won the mayors' seats in Ankara and Istanbul and in more than one-third of Turkey's provincial centers.

March 28: In the Gaza Strip, Israeli undercover soldiers dressed as Arabs killed six allegedly armed and masked members of the Fatah Hawks as they handed out leaflets urging unity behind Yasser Arafat and against Hamas rejectionists. Witnesses said two of the victims were in custody when they were shot in the head by the Israeli soldiers.

• Arab League foreign ministers concluded two days of meetings in Cairo without lifting the boycott of Israel.

March 29: As Israeli officials apologized for the killing of six Palestinians who they said were not fugitives and did not fire at Israeli undercover units, Israeli soldiers wounded more than 75 Palestinians, killing one, as protests against the Gaza Strip killings erupted throughout the occupied territories.

March 30: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili visited Sarajevo' pledging greater U.S. involvement in Bosnian peace efforts.

•Bosnian Muslims and Croats approved a constitution for their new federation.

March 31: After reaching agreement on security arrangements in Hebron, Israeli and PLO officials announced they would resume formal negotiations on Palestinian autonomy in Gaza and Jericho.

• After the U.S. withdrew its initial support for sending 10,000 additional U.N. peacekeeping troops to Bosnia and Croatia, saying Congress might not approve the additional cost, the U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of 3,500 new peacekeepers to help maintain cease-fire agreements in the former Yugoslavia.

• In a reversal of position, the State Department kept Syria on its list of countries that do not cooperate in anti-drug efforts.