A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

June 7:

Israel chose Moshe Arad as its new ambassador to the United States. Arad, who had been Israel's ambassador to Mexico, replaced Meir Rosenne, whose term was scheduled to end in January, but Israeli leaders had been unable to agree on a replacement.

June 8:

Israeli soldiers arrested 13 of an estimated 70 Jewish settlers who fired guns, assaulted residents, and smashed windows in a West Bank refugee camp. Some Israeli politicians criticized the settlers, who were retaliating for the stoning of an Israeli bus.

June 9:

The final communique of the economic summit at Venice, Italy endorsed UN efforts to negotiate an end to the Iran-Iraq war, but did not endorse President Reagan's plan to reflag and escort Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

June 11:

After intense pressure by the pro-Israel lobby and pro-Israel members of Congress, President Reagan withdrew "temporarily" the proposed sale to Saudi Arabia of 1600 Maverick anti-tank missiles, worth $360 million.

June 13:

The House Armed Services Committee's report on the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark concluded that "omissions by both Iraqis and Americans" led to the attack on May 17 in which 37 US crewmen died. The report said that although the Stark was operating i a proper state of alert, the ship's officers failed to turn on the automatic defenses, which could have intercepted the Iraqi plane before it launched the Exocet missile. After a naval inquiry, the Stark's captain and two other officers were relieved of duty.

June 16:

Lebanese President Amin Gemayel signed legislation formally ending the PLO's right to an armed presence in Lebanon. Gemayel overturned the Cairo agreement of 1969, which allowed the PLO to maintain an armed presence in Lebanon and to police its own guerrilla forces. However, because the Lebanese army controls neither West Beirut nor south Lebanon—where most of the Palestinian refugee camps are located—it was unclear what practical effect Gemayel's annulment had.

June 17:

American journalist Charles Glass was kidnapped while traveling from Sidon to Beirut. Glass, who left ABC News to write a book about the Middle East, was abducted along with the son of Lebanon's defense minister and his driver, both of whom were released one week later. Three weeks after his abduction, Glass appeared in a videotape and, while reading from a prepared text, "confessed" to being a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency. ABC News, the White House, and the State Department all denied that Glass ever worked for the government. The Organization for the Defense of Free People, a previously unknown group, took responsibility for Glass' kidnapping but made no immediate demands.

June 17:

Four Jewish Israelis went on trial in Israel for meeting with members of the PLO last November in Rumania. The four on trial, part of a larger 21-person delegation, were charged with violating an August 1986 Israeli law prohibiting any Israeli from meeting with representatives of a "terrorist" organization.

June 17:

While Sharjah's leader, Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Qassimi, was in London, an abdication statement was read in his name by his brother, Sheikh Abdel-Aziz, who temporarily assumed control of Sharjah, one of seven constituent members of the United Arab Emirates. After one week, Sheikh Sultan returned to Sharjah and a compromise was worked out whereby he assumed the leadership of Sharjah and Sheikh Abdel-Aziz was appointed crown prince and deputy ruler.

June 22:

The State Department announced that Saudi Arabia agreed to a US request for expanded AWACS coverage of the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia also volunteered the use of its hospital facilities for American servicemen if needed.

June 28:

OPEC oil ministers meeting in Geneva agreed to price and production quotas designed to boost prices slightly over the next six months. The oil ministers agreed to a price of $18 per barrel, and a daily output of 16.6 million barrels per day. Iraq has refused to abide by OPEC price and quota guidelines since January, and it refused to agree to the guidelines drawn up in Geneva.

June 28:

The Reagan administration announced that it had agreed in principle to allow Egypt to produce the M1A1 Abrams tank, America's top-of-the-line battle tank. Congressional critics claimed the plan posed a threat to Israel, and that sensitive technology used in the tank was likely to find its way to the Soviet Union.

July 3:

Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and South Asian Affairs Richard W. Murphy met in Geneva with Vladimir Polyakov, a senior Soviet Foreign Ministry official. They discussed the Persian Gulf and the possibility of convening an international peace conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

July 6:

Ambassador Vernon Walters met in Damascus with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad. They discussed American hostages held in Lebanon, and US-Syrian relations, which were downgraded in October 1986 when the US withdrew its ambassador in retaliation for Syria's alleged support for "international terrorism." During 1987 President Al-Assad has been active in the search for American hostages in Lebanon, and has recently closed the Damascus offices of Abu Nidal. Cable News Network later reported that Syria knew the identities of the kidnappers and the location of their hostages in Lebanon.

July 8:

Returning from a week-long trip to the Persian Gulf, 12 members of the House Armed Services Committee urged Congress not to block President Reagan's plan to reflag and escort 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers. One member of the delegation said that Kuwaiti rulers are willing to grant landing rights to US aircraft involved in escorting the oil tankers.

July 8:

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin returned to Israel after a brief trip to the US to confer with US officials on Israel's proposed Lavi jet-fighter. In meetings with Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and various members of Congress, Rabin reportedly received promises that the US would help Israel ease out of the project. Rabin was also told that if the project continued, the US would be unwilling to increase its subsidy of the Lavi, which would directly compete with US-manufactured aircraft. Before Rabin left for the US, an Israeli state comptroller reported that "groundless, insufficient, tendentious, and incorrect" cost estimates had been used in the Lavi project, and the governor of the Bank of Israel said "there is not choice but to immediately halt the project."