Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 1987, page 24

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

August 13:

Two Americans were among six foreign students arrested during a protest in front of the US Consulate in East Jerusalem. Roughly 45 European and American students had gathered there to protest the disruption of their volunteer work camp by Israeli soldiers, but the protesters dispersed when Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and began hitting demonstrators with rifle butts and truncheons. The two US students were released after 24 hours.

August 15:

An explosion at the Saudi gas plant at Juaymah on the Persian Gulf injured several workers. There were reports that Iranian-sponsored terrorists had taken advantage of the plant's relatively low security to plant explosives there.

August 15:

Using documents obtained in Israel and testimony and exhibits from the Iran-contra hearings, the Washington Post reported that the Reagan administration knew about Israeli arms sales to Iran as early as 1981, and that Israel had repeatedly sought US approval for the sales. The Post quoted an unnamed staffer from the Iran-contra committee as saying, "You can't understand the story...unless you understand the origins of the policy and the Israeli interests in it."

August 20:

The Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed Reagan administration official as alleging that Iran ordered the kidnapping of American journalist Charles Glass. The official speculated that Iran was also involved in Glass's escape from captivity in Beirut.

August 23:

Saudi Arabia agreed to provide expanded landing rights and refueling support for US aircraft in the Persian Gulf. Pentagon officials welcomed the decision, and said that Saudi support could lead to closer political and military ties to the US.

August 27:

The Washington Post reported that even after Claire George, the CIA's director of covert operations, instructed US intelligence personnel to avoid Manucher Ghorbanifar because he was "a crook," top figures in the Reagan administration decided that Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms dealer with close ties to Israeli intelligence, was to be the middleman in the high-risk, arms-for-hostages initiative with Iran.

August 27:

The Washington Post reported that a US-Kuwaiti agreement was being negotiated under which Kuwait would charter at least two American-owned supertankers to ship oil through the Persian Gulf. The pact was initiated by Kuwait in an effort to strengthen US-Kuwaiti relations.

August 29:

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Rafsanjani said the United States had recently sent two messages expressing its desire to reestablish diplomatic relations with Tehran. A US State Department spokesman would not confirm Rafsanjani's remarks.

August 29:

After a 45-day lull in the Gulf war, Iraqi warplanes resumed attacks on Iranian shipping and oil fields. Although a de facto cease-fire had been in effect, Iraq justified its attacks by claiming that Iran was using the cease-fire to strengthen itself militarily and economically, and that without military pressure upon the Iranian economy, the war could continue indefinitely.

August 30:

After a long and bitter debate, the Israeli cabinet voted 12-11 to abandon the Lavi jet fighter program. The decision precipitated a conflict within the Israeli cabinet, and Moshe Arens, former defense minister and ambassador to the US, subsequently resigned his cabinet post, calling the decision a "terrible mistake." The decision to abandon the Lavi was welcomed by the Reagan administration.

August 31:

Iranian speed boats manned by Revolutionary Guards attacked a Kuwaiti freighter, not under a US flag, in the Persian Gulf in an apparent response to Kuwait's continued support for Iraq in the seven-year-old Iran-Iraq war.

September 1:

The Reagan administration increased pressure on Iran by declaring that unless Tehran accepted a UN-mandated cease-fire within a week, the US would seek to impose an international arms embargo on Tehran.

September 2:

After an 11-month absence, US Ambassador William Eagleton returned to Damascus to resume his post. Recalled in November 1986 to protest Syria's alleged role in the attempt to blow up an Israeli airliner in London, Eagleton's return to Syria signaled a thaw in US-Syrian relations.

September 4:

Israeli planes bombed the Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon, killing 41 and wounding 100. This was Israel's most devastating attack so far in 1987 against Palestinian camps.

September 4:

After charging that Iran fired three Silkworm missiles which exploded harmlessly on Kuwaiti territory, Kuwait expelled five Iranian diplomats.

September 6:

PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat discussed a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with four Israeli Knesset members during a UN conference in Geneva. In his speech before the conference, Arafat reiterated the PLO's acceptance of all UN resolutions on the question of Palestine, including resolutions 242 and 338.

September 7:

After meeting with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara'a in Damascus, Claude Cheysson, commissioner of the European Economic Community, said Syrian-EEC relations were improving. Cheysson also praised America's decision to return Ambassador William Eagleton to Damascus.

September 7:

Pro-Iranian kidnappers released West German hostage Alfred Schmidt. There was speculation that Schmidt's release was made possible in part because of Germany's refusal to extradite Mohammed Hamadei to the US to face trial for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jet and the murder of an American navy diver.

September 15:

By executive order, the Reagan administration closed the Palestine Information Office in Washington, DC. Under mounting pressure from presidential candidates Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS) and Rep. Jack Kemp (R-NY), the administration finally agreed to close the Washington office and leave open the PLO's UN Mission in New York. The move was immediately criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union and a wide array of Arab-American and other US groups and individuals. Speaking at a press conference the next day, PIO Director Hassan Abdel Rahman noted that the PIO had not broken any US laws, and he pledged to contest the government's closure order in court.