September/October 1994, Pages 102-104

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

Compiled by Janet McMahon

June 1: Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 17 Palestinians who attacked a Ramallah police station to protest the May 31 execution-style killing of two Hamas activists by Israeli plainclothes undercover police.

* The U.N. International Tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslav republic released its final report, accusing Bosnian Serbs of "crimes against humanity" and "genocide."

* In its annual Human Development Index, a ranking of 173 countries based on life expectancy, educational level and basic purchasing power, the United Nations Development Program identified Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and Tajikistan as among 17 countries in danger of "social disintegration."

June 2: In pre-dawn raids, Israeli warplanes bombed and rocketed a Hezbollah base near Lebanon's border with Syria, killing at least 26 people. Hezbollah guerrillas retaliated by firing 20 rockets into northern Israel.

* Top U.N. diplomat Yasushi Akashi postponed Bosnian cease-fire talks scheduled to be held in Geneva after Bosnian Serb forces failed to keep their promise to withdraw from Gorazde.

* The Yemen government, reversing its position, accepted the previous day's U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in the country's civil war.

June 3: Israel sent reinforcements to its border with Lebanon.

June 4: Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 16 Palestinians in clashes in Hebron and Ramallah.

* Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic disputed U.N. official Yasushi Akashi's statement that Bosnian Serb forces had completed their withdrawal from Gorazde, six weeks after a NATO ultimatum expired, and said the Bosnian government would not participate in cease-fire talks in Geneva.

* A Kuwaiti court sentenced five Iraqis and a Kuwaiti to death, and seven Iraqis and Kuwaitis to prison, on charges of conspiring to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush. One Kuwaiti was acquitted.

June 5:Rival Iraqi Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani met in Irbil for talks on ending a five-week-old conflict between their two factions in which up to 400 people had been killed.

June 6: Israeli officials acknowledged that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, in a letter to the late Norwegian Foreign Minister Johan Jörgen Holst, had promised that Israel would preserve the status quo of "all the Palestinian institutions of East Jerusalem."

* The Bosnian government joined cease-fire talks in Geneva.

* The Yemen government announced a unilateral cease-fire.

June 7:In Washington talks, Israel and Jordan agreed to work on joint economic and development projects.

June 8: Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren issued a religious ruling calling on Jews to kill PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

* Former Palestinian peace talks delegation spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi announced formation of the 14-member Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights.

* Representatives of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation and of Bosnian Serbs agreed on a month-long cease-fire.

June 9:The U.S. House of Representatives voted 244-178 to lift unilaterally the U.N. embargo on arms sales to Bosnia.

June 10: International aid donors, responding to urgent PLO requests for $177 million in promised aid to the new self-governing authority in Jericho and the Gaza Strip, released $42 million in immediate aid, including $10 million from Saudi Arabia.

June 13: Attending the 30th summit of the Organization of African Unity in Tunis, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat bade farewell to the PLO's country of exile since 1982 and accused Israel of blocking confidence-building measures in the newly autonomous Gaza Strip and Jericho.

* A Lebanese court indicted former Christian warlord Samir Geagea for the Feb. 27 church bombing in which 11 people were killed and 50 wounded, and for the 1990 assassination of rival Christian leader Dany Chamoun and his family. Investigating Judge Joseph Freiha noted that "many of the accused trained in Israel and had links with Israel's intelligence service," and said that Geagea and other indicted members of his Lebanese Forces militia "engaged in crimes punishable by death."

* Saudi diplomat Mohammed A. Al-Khilewi was reported to be seeking political asylum in the U.S., after charging Saudi officials with corruption, terrorism and human rights violations.

June 14:Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev warned that the recent congressional vote authorizing the unilateral lifting of the arms embargo on Bosnia could "bring the world back to the worst years of the Cold War." Meeting in Moscow with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, Kosyrev also urged the Bosnian Serbs to "choose peace," adding, "If you choose war, then forget about Russia's support."

June 15: The Vatican and Israel announced the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two religious states, with a Vatican embassy expected to be opened in Jaffa.

* World oil prices jumped to their highest level in a year, after OPEC oil ministers agreed to hold production at current levels for the remainder of the year and cancelled their regular September meeting.

June 16:Israel freed 170 Palestinian prisoners who signed pledges renouncing violence, including two top former Hamas leaders, but continued to hold hundreds of prisoners who refused to sign the pledge.

June 20: A bomb exploded at the Imam Reza mausoleum in the Iranian city of Meshed, killing 25 and wounded 70 worshippers commemorating Ashura, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson and third Shi'i imam.

June 22: Meeting with Jordan's King Hussein at the White House, President Clinton promised to seek forgiveness of Jordan's $700 million debt to the U.S. and to ask Jordan's other creditors for similar gestures.

June 23: Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, representatives from Britain, Denmark, France and Spain urged Congress not to lift unilaterally the arms embargo on Bosnia.

* A panel of scientists appointed by the Defense Department reported it found no evidence that U.S. troops had been exposed to chemical or biological weapons during the Gulf war.

* Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller said she would reject any U.S. military aid that was conditioned on its not being used to fight rebel Kurds or that was linked to human rights.

June 24:Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, as a Muslim, was entitled to come to Jerusalem to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque.

June 26: An Israeli government commission investigating the Feb. 26 Hebron massacre criticized Israeli army and border police procedures but concluded that Israeli settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein acted alone in murdering 29 Muslim worshippers.

* The Palestinian Autonomy Authority held its first meeting in Gaza City.

* In fierce fighting in central Bosnia, government troops captured strategic territory from Bosnian Serb forces.

June 28: Israeli and PLO negotiators met near the army checkpoint separating Israel and the northern Gaza Strip to begin discussions on expanding Palestinian autonomy to the entire West Bank.

* U.N. special envoy Yasushi Akashi warned Bosnian government and Serb forces to stop attacking peacekeepers or face NATO air strikes.

June 29:The U.S., Russia and the European Union agreed on a map giving 51 percent of Bosnian territory to the Muslim-Croat federation and 49 percent to Bosnian Serbs.

June 30: On the eve of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's return to Jericho and the Gaza Strip, right-wing Jewish demonstrators snarled traffic and fought with police outside Jerusalem.

* The U.N. Security Council voted to send a small international force to monitor a possible cease-fire in Yemen.

July 1: Ending a 27-year exile, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat crossed the border from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, where he kissed the ground, then addressed a crowd estimated in the tens of thousands in Gaza City.

* With a 50-50 vote, the Senate failed to pass a resolution demanding that President Clinton unilaterally lift the arms embargo on Bosnia.

* Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic condemned the proposed territorial division of Bosnia as "humiliating" to his people.

July 2:As PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat visited Jabaliyah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the birthplace of the intifada, thousands of right-wing Israelis demonstrated at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall against Arafat's visit, then rampaged through Arab neighborhoods, smashing shop and car windows and stoning the U.S. consulate.

July 3: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin accused right-wing opponents of trying to undermine the Israeli-PLO peace accord.

July 4: Washington's first ambassador to Bosnia, Victor Jackovich, opened the new U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.

July 5: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, arriving in Jericho, formally established Palestinian self-rule in the autonomous West Bank town and Gaza Strip.

July 6: At Bosnian peace talks in Geneva, the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and Germany formally presented a proposed map for a territorial settlement to the Bosnian government and Bosnian Serb representatives. U.S. special envoy Charles Redman, discussing the Clinton administration's agreement to the document, said, "We had to jump over the moral bridge in the interests of wider peace."

* PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met in Paris to begin negotiations on the next stage of Palestinian self-rule. In Alexandria, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with King Hussein of Jordan to discuss the upcoming Jordanian-Israeli peace talks.

July 7: Northern Yemeni forces captured the southern Yemeni capital of Aden, declaring victory in the country's two-month-old civil war.

* Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic accepted the division of their country as proposed by the five Western powers.

July 8:Israeli soldiers entered the right-wing Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron and imposed a curfew on the town's Arab residents, following the killing of an Israeli teenager and a soldier.

July 9: Palestinian authorities in Gaza acknowledged that a Gaza resident arrested for drug dealing and collaboration had died while in custody.

July 11: Noting that "for the first time, there is a return without going to another exile," PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat left exile in Tunis for his new home in the Gaza Strip, stopping en route in Cairo, where Israeli and Palestinian negotiators opened talks on "early empowerment," meaning the widening of Palestinian autonomy beyond Gaza and Jericho.

July 13: Israel prevented newly arriving Palestinian National Authority officials from entering the Gaza Strip until four Palestinians Israel claimed entered the Gaza Strip illegally were sent back to Egypt. Israel claimed the four had accompanied Yasser Arafat's entourage but were not admissible because they had been involved in past terrorist attacks against Israelis.

July 17: Two Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded as Israeli troops and Palestinian police clashed during demonstrations by Gaza workers waiting to pass through the Erez checkpoint for jobs in Israel.

July 18: In Buenos Aires, a bomb destroyed a seven-story building which housed two Jewish groups, killing 96 people and wounding 100.

July 19: The self-styled Bosnian Serb parliament voted on whether to accept the international proposal for the division of Bosnia. The result of the secret ballot was to be conveyed in Geneva to the five Western sponsors of the proposal.

July 20: A Bosnian Serb delegation told international mediators that it could not accept their proposal for the territorial division of Bosnia.

* Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul Salam Majali and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres held the region's first public summit at South Shuneh in Jordan on the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth.

July 21: Asked at a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher about Israel's invitation to Jordan's King Hussein to visit Jerusalem, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat responded that the Jewish state hadn't "the right to offer invitations...This is the jurisdiction of the Palestinians."

* The Sarajevo airport was closed for the second day in a row after three cargo planes, including an American C-141, were hit by gunfire over the Bosnian capital.

July 25: In a White House ceremony, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed a document formally ending the 46-year state of war between their two countries.

* Bosnian Serb forces fired heavy weapons at the besieged Muslim enclave of Gorazde. At the U.N., Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali warned that the U.N. would have to withdraw its 36,000 peacekeeping troops from Bosnia whether or not the international peace plan was accepted.

* The southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army rejected the Sudanese government's unilateral cease-fire.

July 26: Jordan's King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin addressed a joint session of Congress.

* Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said his forces would shut three main roads linking Sarajevo to the outside world to stop the smuggling of weapons to Bosnian Muslims. U.N. officials denied such smuggling was taking place.

* A car bomb exploded outside the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 13 people.

July 27: Chief PLO negotiator Nabil Shaath criticized Israel for giving King Hussein of Jordan a special role in preserving Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, and demanded that the Arab League reaffirm "that Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine."

* A second car bomb exploded in London outside a building housing Israeli and Jewish organizations. There were no serious injuries.

* Under Russian pressure, the Bosnian Serb leadership was reported to be revising its response to the international peace plan. Meanwhile, Bosnian Serb forces attacked a 10-truck U.N. convoy approaching Sarajevo, killing a British soldier.

July 28:The Bosnian Serbs rejected the international peace plan for Bosnia a second time.

July 29: The U.S. accused the U.N. command in Bosnia of cooperating in the reimposition of the siege of Sarajevo and enforcing Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's order to close the main road into the city.

* The Palestinian Authority banned the distribution in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of the pro-Jordanian newspaper An Nahar and the weekly magazine Akhbar al-Balad, forcing them to cease publication.

* Congress approved the reduction of Jordan's debt to the U.S. by up to $220 million. President Clinton had promised King Hussein that Jordan's entire $700 million debt would be forgiven as a reward for signing the recent pact with Israel.

**Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to extend the 10-week cease-fire over Nagorno-Karabakh.

July 30:Foreign ministers of the five-nation "contact group" in Geneva urged the Bosnian Serbs to reconsider their latest rejection of the proposed division of Bosnia, and threatened to tighten economic sanctions against Serbia and lift the arms embargo against the Bosnian government if Bosnian Serb intransigence continued.

July 31: As the Bosnian government criticized the five Western powers for not taking a stronger stand against the Bosnian Serb rejection of the peace proposal, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic urged his Bosnian allies to accept the plan.

**Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met in the formerly disputed resort of Taba to discuss possible Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations.