July/August 1994, pp. 104-106

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

April 1: International relief agencies were reported to be considering the evacuation of 10,000 Bosnian Serbs and Croats from in and around the northwest Bosnian city of Prijedor following three days of killings by Bosnian Serbs in retaliation for the death of six Serb policemen.

April 3: Israeli police captured Baruch Marzel, the leader of the outlawed Kach movement. Marzel, who had been at large for the three weeks since the banning of Kach, was ordered held without trial for three months.

April 4: The day after Defense Secretary William Perry said the U.S. "would not enter the war to stop" Bosnian Serb attacks on the towns of Gorazde and Prijedor, President Clinton indicated that the recent precedent of threatening air strikes to halt attacks on Sarajevo did not necessarily apply in these cases.

April 6: A Palestinian suicide bomber in a car packed with high explosives rammed a commuter bus in Afula, killing at least 7 Israelis and wounding 45 others. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred on the 40th day of Islamic mourning for victims of the Hebron massacre and on the eve of Israel's annual Holocaust remembrance day.

Bosnian Serb leaders in Pale proposed a countrywide ceasefire. However, Serb troops continued assaulting Gorazde and reneged on a promise to allow the top U.N. commander Gen. Michael Rose to visit the besieged "safe haven."

April 7: Visiting India and Pakistan on his first overseas trip as U.S. deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott received a cool response from both governments on a U.S. proposal to reduce the danger of nuclear war in the region by delivering 38 F16s to Pakistan in return for an end to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

April 8: Israel extended the closure of the occupied territories by revoking work and travel permits for Palestinians and making plans to import workers from Asia and Eastern Europe.

April 10: Following a request by U.N. observers for NATO intervention, two U.S. F16s bombed Serb targets around the besieged town of Gorazde.

April 11: As two U.S. warplanes under NATO command attacked Bosnian Serb positions outside Gorazde for a second day, Russian President Boris Yeltsin angrily complained that Russia had not been consulted in advance about the strikes.

Moments after the advance team for an international observer mission ended its first visit to Hebron, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians protesting the continued closure of the Cave of the Patriarch to Muslim worshippers.

April 12: Palestinian autonomy talks in Cairo adjourned on the eve of the April 13 deadline for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho, with a final agreement said to be still weeks away. O Reacting to NATO air strikes, Bosnian Serb leaders rejected diplomatic overtures to resume peace talks and ordered their troops to shoot down NATO warplanes.

Lebanese authorities detained two Iraqi diplomats and were guarding the Iraqi embassy to prevent the escape of a third suspect in the assassination of Iraqi dissident Sheikh Taleb Ali Suheil outside his home in Beirut.

April 13: In the second suicide attack in a week, a Palestinian driver rammed his explosives laden car into a bus in Hadera, killing 5 Israelis and wounding 30 others.

Bosnian Serb leaders received international negotiators Lord David Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg at their headquarters in Pale, and told Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vitaly Churkin they would lift the siege of Gorazde.

April 14: Two U.S. army helicopters, mistakenly identified as Iraqi Ml24s when they failed to give a special electronic signal, were shot down by American fighter planes, killing all 26 on board.

As President Clinton emphasized the neutrality of NATO and U.N. forces in Bosnia, Bosnian Serb forces kidnapped U.N. soldiers at gunpoint, shelled Muslim "safe areas:' and attempted to force the U.N. to turn over heavy weapons under its protection in continued retaliation against recent NATO air strikes.

April 15: As the top U.N. official in Bosnia, Yasushi Akashi, met with Bosnian Serb leaders in Pale, Bosnian Serb forces overcame the last major defensive positions around the U.N. "safe haven" of Gorazde.

April 16: Bosnian Serb troops shot down a British fighter jet over Gorazde.

April 17: Hours after U.N. officials claimed to have negotiated a ceasefire, Bosnian Serb tanks entered the U.N. "safe area" around Gorazde.

Palestinian autonomy talks resumed in Cairo.

April 18: Lebanon broke diplomatic relations with Iraq, giving Baghdad 72 hours to close its embassy in Beirut.

As the closure of Jerusalem to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continued, a ceremony in Amman celebrated the completion of the $6.5 million restoration of the Dome of the Rock underwritten by Jordan's King Hussein.

April 19: Israeli security forces arrested more than 400 suspected Islamist militants in predawn raids throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Bosnian Serb troops seized 18 heavy weapons from U.N. peacekeepers in Sarajevo, returning them after a warning from Russian President Boris Yeltsin that they keep their promise to Russia and end attacks on Muslim civilians in Gorazde.

April 21: As Bosnian Serbs threatened to "roll over the civilian population" unless Gorazde surrendered, a bipartisan group of senators led by Republican Minority Leader Robert Dole urged the Clinton administration to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said he would be willing to evacuate Jewish settlements on the Golan Heights "for the sake of peace."

April 22: NATO issued an ultimatum calling on Bosnian Serbs to cease their shelling of Gorazde by 12:01 a.m. GMT April 24 or face NATO air strikes against heavy weapons and other military targets. Top U.N. representative Yasushi Akashi, following a 10-hour meeting in Belgrade with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, announced that the Bosnian Serbs had agreed to a ceasefire and withdrawal of their heavy weapons to a distance of 1.9 miles from the center of Gorazde.

April 23: Hours before a NATO deadline went into effect, Bosnian Serb forces subjected Gorazde to heavy shelling. However, U.N. official Yasushi Akashi vetoed a NATO recommendation for immediate air strikes.

April 24: Bosnian Serb forces moved their heavy weapons outside the 1.9 mile "exclusion zone" around Gorazde, setting fire to houses and other facilities in their path, including the city's only water treatment plant.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher left for a one week trip to the Middle East to help broker a peace between Syria and Israel and urge Israel and the PLO to resolve their remaining differences on the Palestinian autonomy plan.

April 25: The U.S. agreed to conduct land-based inspections of cargo headed for Jordan, rather than boarding ships en route to Aqaba, to ensure compliance with the trade embargo against Iraq.

April 26: Iraq agreed to speed up creation of a U.N. arms monitoring program.

April 27: With France and Russia reported to be favoring an easing of sanctions against Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher met in Riyadh with Gulf Cooperation Council ministers to urge that the trade embargo on Iraq be continued.

April 28: At a Cairo press conference following a day of intense negotiations, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced that Israel and the PLO had agreed to resolve all but two key remaining issues and to formally sign a Palestinian autonomy plan on May 4.

West Bank Jewish settler Yoram Skolnik was convicted by the Jerusalem District Court of premeditated murder and given the mandatory sentence of life in prison for the killing of Abu Sabha, a 20 year-old Palestinian under Israeli police guard with his hands and legs bound.

April 29: In Paris, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators signed a comprehensive economic agreement for Palestinian self-rule in Jericho and the Gaza Strip.

European, Russian and U.S. members of a Bosnian "contact group" left Sarajevo after failing to obtain Bosnian Serb and Muslim agreement to a ceasefire.

April 30: U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher presented an Israeli proposal for a phased withdrawal from the Golan Heights to Syrian President Hafez AlAssad. Following their Damascus meeting, Christopher said he was encouraged by Syria's recent moves to curb terrorism.

May 1: Two Danish U.N. tank platoons, engaging in the fiercest fighting since the 1943 Nazi invasion of their country, responded to a Bosnian Serb attack on their U.N. observation post in the town of Kalesija by firing 72 shells at the Bosnian Serb position, killing nine and wounding five.

May 2: The World Bank announced a three year, $1.2 billion economic development program for Jericho and the Gaza Strip.

May 3: President Clinton signed a new policy directive for selective and more effective U.S. participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations and greater congressional involvement in the decision to engage U.S. troops.

After a meeting in which Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic reiterated that his government would not resume peace talks until Bosnian Serb troops are entirely removed from the "exclusion zone" around Gorazde, U.N. official Yasushi Akashi acknowledged that there remain "some unresolved questions over Gorazde."

At the opening session in Doha of the fifth round of multilateral Mideast peace talks on arms control and regional security, Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr AlThani, demanded that "all states of the region join and abide by the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) and open all their nuclear installations to international monitoring."

May 4: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed an agreement formally initiating the Israeli withdrawal from and Palestinian self-rule in Jericho and the Gaza Strip. The Cairo ceremony was interrupted by a last-minute dispute over Jericho boundaries, but Chairman Arafat signed the maps after adding a written disclaimer.

Two days before a scheduled visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, an Iranian air force transport plane carrying at least 60 tons of explosives and other raw materials landed in Zagreb as part of a reported deal between Croatia and Bosnia.

May 5: U.S. Gen. George Joulwan, NATO's supreme commander, criticized U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi for secretly authorizing Bosnian Serb tanks to move through the 12mile exclusion zone around Sarajevo. Akashi, who was present at the NATO commander's press conference, said later that the deal was cancelled when the Serbs refused to travel under U.N. escort.

Fighting in Yemen escalated dramatically, with warplanes attacking the capital of San'a and the former South Yemeni capital of Aden.

May 6: U.S. officials confirmed an Israeli press report that Israel has requested $1.5 billion in U.S. ammunition and weaponry, and billions more in high-tech intelligence-gathering equipment, in compensation for withdrawing from the Golan Heights.

May 7: U.S., French and other foreign nationals began evacuation from Yemen, as air attacks continued in Santa and Aden.

President Elias Hrawi and Shi'i parliament speaker Nabih Berri of thwarting his efforts toward Muslim-Christian reconciliation, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, announced he was suspending his official duties.

May 10: Amid great celebration, the first contingent of the new Palestinian police force entered the Gaza Strip.

Some 2,000 Egyptian lawyers demonstrated outside the offices of an Egyptian bar association of predominantly Muslim militants to protest the death of one of its members, 30 year-old Abdel-Harith Madani, while in police custody. International and Egyptian human rights groups said they suspected Madani had been tortured to death, while an Interior Ministry spokesman said, "We never violate human rights."

May 11: The town of Deir El Balah in the Gaza Strip became the first town to return to Palestinian authority, as the first contingent of Palestinian police took over former Israeli army headquarters in the town.

Israeli jets attacked alleged military bases of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine located in Naameh, south of Beirut. Two people were killed and eight wounded, including a threeyearold girl.

A Scud missile fired by Yemen's southern faction struck a Santa neighborhood, killing or wounding dozens of civilians.

May 12: After voting 5049 to endorse the administration's policy of lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia only with allied consent, the U.S. Senate voted by the same margin to order the president to lift the embargo unilaterally.

The PLO named the first 15 members of the new Palestinian Authority for Jericho and the Gaza Strip.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Stephen Joseph announced that hundreds of Gulf War veterans would undergo extensive testing in an attempt to identify the cause of the flulike symptoms experienced by thousands of returning U.S. soldiers.

May 13: Israeli troops ended 27 years of occupation in Jericho as they withdrew in accordance with terms of the PLO-Israeli peace agreement.

Russia joined the U.S. and the European Union in supporting a Bosnian peace plan calling for Bosnian Serbs, now controlling 70 percent of the former Yugoslav republic, to receive 49 percent of Bosnian territory, with the remainder to be controlled by the Bosnian government in federation with Bosnian Croats.

May 14: Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic called the U.S., Russian and European peace plan for his country a "televised Munich."

May 16: Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

As Jewish settlers in Hebron fired on Palestinians, wounding about 20, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to convey private messages from Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad on a peace agreement.

May 17: The U.N. command in Bosnia, led by British Gen. Michael Rose and civilian diplomat Yasushi Akashi, rejected a request for NATO air strikes from Danish U.N. troops under fire from Serb tanks.

The U.N. Security Council, divided over the continuation of economic sanctions against Iraq, failed to issue a formal statement following its latest 60-day review and recommended no change in the terms of the sanctions.

May 18: As Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, U.S. Secretary of State Christopher visited the newly autonomous West Bank town of Jericho.

May 19: In talks held in Oslo, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres agreed to accelerate negotiations on Palestinian autonomy for the entire West Bank and on final relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

May 20: Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip for ten days following the killing of two Israeli army reservists at a Gaza border checkpoint by Islamic militants.

May 21: Hours after Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh declared a three day ceasefire in the country's two week-old civil war, Vice President Ali Salim Beidh, president of the former South Yemen, announced the redivision of Yemen into two states, with Aden as the capital of a new South Yemen.

The PLO denounced the previous day's killing of two Israeli soldiers, calling it a threat to Palestinian security in the newly autonomous Gaza Strip.

In a nighttime helicopter raid into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, Israeli commandos kidnapped former Amal security chief Mustafa Dirani, head of the pro-Iranian group Faithful Resistance, for questioning about the fate of captured Israeli soldier Ron Arad, shot down over southern Lebanon in 1986.

May 23: U.N. officials said that Bosnian Serb forces had failed to comply with an agreement to withdraw their troops from the besieged Muslim town of Gorazde. In Zagreb, Croatia, top U.N. Gen. Bertrand de Lapresie rejected a NATO request to threaten the use of military strikes if Bosnian Serbs did not pull back their heavy weapons from the "safe area" around Tuzla.

May 24: As PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat decreed that Israeli law would no longer apply in newly autonomous Jericho and Gaza Strip, Israel closed the Jericho border for 24 hours after Palestinian police there disarmed three Jewish settlers.

All four men convicted in the bombing of New York's World Trade Center received sentences of 240 years in prison with no possibility of parole.

Northern Yemeni forces captured the Ataq military base in southern Yemen.

May 25: State Department officials confirmed that senior Iraqi diplomat Adnan Malik had been expelled from the U.S. for violating the agreement allowing only consular services rather than a full-fledged diplomatic mission.