Washington Report, July 15, 1985, Page 13

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

June 14:

Two Lebanese Shiite gunmen seized TWA flight 847 bound from Athens to Rome with 104 American and 49 other passengers and forced it to fly first to Beirut, where more gunmen came aboard, and then to Algiers. During the first stop in Beirut, the hijackers released 19 passengers, mostly women and children. Another 23 were freed in Algiers.

June 15:

TWA Flight 847 returned to Beirut where the gunmen killed U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem and read a statement which included the demand for Israel's release of some 766 Lebanese, mainly Shiite Muslims, being held in Atlit prison in Israel. The plane then returned to Algiers, where the hijackers repeated the demands, released another 50 passengers, and threatened to kill the remaining passengers if Israel did not comply.

June 16:

The London Sunday Times reported the PLO had given U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy a list of 10 possible participants in a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation for peace negotiations. They were said to be Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij, former Nablus Mayor Hikmat al Masri, former Gaza Mayor Rashad Shawwa. Also included in the list were two Palestinian-American professors, Edward Said and Walid Khalidi; PNC member Nabil Sha'ath; PNC president Sheikh Abdel Hamid Sayegh; Palestinian businessman Basil Akl; and two members of the PLO executive committee, former Halhoul Mayor Mohammed Milhem and the Rev. Elias Khoury. The report stated that Murphy will meet a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation either at the end of June or the beginning of July, to discuss the peace negotiations proposed earlier by King Hussein.

June 16:

TWA Flight 847 left Algiers for the second time for its third stop in Beirut, one hour before expiration of the deadline set by the hijackers to fulfill their demands. In Beirut, they requested Nabih Berri, leader of Amal, the Shiite militia, to negotiate on their behalf. One more hostage was released for medical reasons. U.S. media reported that ships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet were dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean and a unit of the U.S. Army's "Delta Force" had departed for the Middle East.

June 18:

Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba met with President Reagan for a discussion that included the hostage crisis and U.S. aid to Tunisia. Mr. Bourguiba appealed to Arab League Secretary-General Chedli Klibi to use his good offices to help remedy the hostage situation. The U.S. government said the Tunisian President's request for military and economic aid was received warmly, although no promises were made and no figures were disclosed.

June 18:

In a televised news conference, President Reagan informed "the assassins in Beirut and their accomplices, wherever they may be, that America will never make concessions to terrorists ... Nor will we ask nor pressure any other government to do so." Asked if he thought U.S. policies have contributed to the rise of radicalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East, President Reagan replied: "We seem to be a target, also I'm quite sure, because of our friendship and support of Israel." Meanwhile, in Beirut, more hostages were released, leaving 40 American men, including the three-man crew of the airplane, in the hands of the hijackers.

June 19:

The body of Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem, 23, shot to death on the second day of the hostage crisis, was returned to the United States for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

June 23:

Asked in the course of an ABC news program whether Israel's holding of more than 700 Lebanese prisoners was in violation of international law, Secretary of State Shultz answered: "We have examined that, and competent lawyers and independent lawyers have looked at that, and it is our opinion that it is not in accord with the Geneva Convention."

June 24:

Israel released 31 of the 766 Lebanese and Palestinian detainees it had been holding in Atlit prison near Haifa. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin insisted that the move was "not linked whatsoever" to the demands of the hijackers of TWA flight 847 but was in accordance with Israeli law which allows detainees to appeal to a special committee and gain release if not found guilty. In response to the measure, Nabih Berri said "we are expecting the release of 731 prisoners and not merely 31" and called for a pullback of U.S. Navy ships standing off Beirut's shore.

June 25:

In a Bonn Press conference Vice President Bush said: "we think that people being held against international law should be released." Asked what the U.S. response would be to Israeli release of its Shiite prisoners, Mr. Bush said the U.S. would "certainly welcome" the release "of people that are illegally held hostage." Elsewhere the same day, Syria took a public role for the first time in negotiations over release of the TWA hostages.

June 26:

Nabih Berri released hostage Jimmy Dell Palmer, suffering from a heart condition, and introduced a proposal to move the remaining 39 hostages either to a Western embassy in Beirut or to a third country such as Syria. He stipulated that the government concerned should not free the hostages until Israel released its Lebanese prisoners. Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Shultz called for unconditional release of all detained Americans, including 7 kidnapped earlier in Lebanon.

June 28:

Syrian sources said the hostages "will be fully freed in Damascus" the following day.

June 29:

A plan to free the hijackers failed when Nabih Berri and the hijackers demanded that the United States guarantee that it would not retaliate militarily for the hostage crisis. Berri's concern stemmed from remarks by President Reagan in which he referred to the hijackers as "thugs, murderers and barbarians."

June 30:

After 17 days of captivity, the 39 remaining American hostages from TWA flight 847 were transported to Damascus and, after a press conference in which they thanked Syrian President Assad for his intervention, flown to Frankfurt, Germany. The release took place after the Department of Sate issued an ambiguous statement in apparent response to Berri's demand for no retaliation. Though seven Americans kidnapped over the previous year-and-a-half in Lebanon were not part of the release, the administration reaffirmed its commitment to their release, and noted that Syria is working on behalf of the U.S. to gain their freedom. In a televised address, President Reagan said "Terrorists, be on notice: we will fight back against you in Lebanon and elsewhere."

July 1:

After a marathon 24-hour meeting the Israeli Cabinet declared a state of economic emergency and imposed austerity measures including an 18.8 percent currency devaluation, cuts in government subsidies of basic commodities and a three-month wage and price freeze. Other promised government budget cuts, including some which U.S. economists have said are essential to reversing Israel's economic decline, were not fully implemented, however. The Histadrut, Israel's national trade union federation, called a 24-hour general strike in protest against the austerity measures.