OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1999, page 122-123

Facts For Your File

Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

Compiled by Janet McMahon

July 1, 1999: At a news conference with visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Bill Clinton said, “I would like it if the Palestinian people felt free and were free to live wherever they liked.”

NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark said that despite 78 days of bombing, President Slobodan Milosevic still “has his hands on the sinews of power in Serbia.”
As its ground troops sought to retake a strategic peak, Indian warplanes bombed Islamic guerrilla positions on the Indian-held side of Kashmir’s line of control.
Five people were killed and eight injured in Kurdish rebel attacks throughout Turkey in retaliation for the death sentence handed down to PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

July 2: In his first public statement since Israel’s May 17 election, Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak called President Clinton’s previous day’s remark on the return of Palestinian refugees “unacceptable.”

As Kosovar Albanians took to the streets of Pristina to celebrate the anniversary of their 1991 declaration of independence, leaders of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian and Serbian communities called for an end to revenge killings and violence. Meanwhile, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia’s second-largest city, some 10,000 people gathered to demonstrate against President Milosevic.
U.S. warplanes attacked an Iraqi communications site near the northern city of Mosul.

July 3: Liberal candidates in Kuwaiti parliamentary elections more than tripled their representation by winning 14 of 50 seats. Islamists won 20 seats, pro-government politicians 12, and independents four.

July 4: After a hastily arranged three-hour White House meeting with President Clinton, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif agreed to take “concrete steps” to end recent fighting in Kashmir.

On the country’s independence day, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika granted amnesty to thousands of prisoners, including opposition Islamists.

July 5: NATO and Russia agreed on the deployment of 3,600 Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo.

July 6: Ehud Barak was sworn into office as Israeli prime minister, vowing to seek a “peace of the brave.”

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia, freezing their U.S. assets in response to reports of Taliban protection of Osama bin Laden.

July 7: Federal agents arrest Mustafa Elnore, a New Jersey resident, on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about his links to militant Islamic groups.

The U.N. sent a five-member team of international disarmament experts to Iraq to assist in evaluating and dismantling a U.N. weapons inspection lab in Baghdad.

July 8: The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of restricting freedom of speech in 11 cases involving Kurdish journalists.

U.S. warplanes bombed an Iraqi communications site after coming under attack in the northern no-fly zone.

July 9: Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak traveled to Egypt, where he promised President Mubarak he would “turn every stone” in the search for Middle East peace. Later, Barak said he wanted to postpone implementation of the Wye agreement, instead incorporating it into final status negotiations, a proposal rejected by Palestinian leaders.

Succumbing to pressure from right-wing Zionist groups, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO) withdrew his nomination of Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles for membership on the National Commission of Terrorism.
Iranian police stormed a Tehran University dormitory, arresting about 120 students, hours after a student demonstration protesting the Justice Ministry’s banning of the moderate newspaper Salam.
Newly appointed U.N. administrator for Kosovo Bernard Kouchner said that KLA soldiers will be incorporated into an internationally trained police force for the province.
Algerian President Bouteflika said the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), whose impending victory in 1992 elections caused the government to cancel the elections, would not be permitted to return to politics.
The Taliban acknowledged that Osama bin Laden was still in Afghanistan.

July 10: Some 10,000 Iranian students demonstrated outside Tehran University to protest the previous day’s police raid and demand the resignation of hard-line Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

July 11: Israeli Prime Minister Barak held his first official summit with Palestinian President Arafat at the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

As some 15,000 students again took to the streets of Tehran, the two Iranian security chiefs responsible for the recent raid on the University of Tehran were fired.
Top Pakistani and Indian military commanders agreed on a plan calling for the withdrawal of Pakistani-backed guerrillas from Indian-controlled Kashmir and the cessation of Indian air and ground attacks.
British police arrested Egyptians Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous and Adel Mohammed Abdul al-Magid Bari, wanted by the U.S. for conspiring in last summer’s bombing of two of its embassies in Africa.

July 12: As demonstrations spread to 18 cities, Iranian riot police backed by helicopters fired tear gas at protesters and passersby alike in Tehran.

Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif urged Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to agree to peace talks on Kashmir.
Israel’s new minister of industry and trade, Ran Cohen of the Meretz Party, announced the suspension of funding for the construction of new Israeli factories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

July 13: Reflecting Prime Minister Barak’s desire for a scaled-back U.S. role in the peace process, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said Washington will serve “absolutely not as a factor inside the talks, not as a player within the process, but as a fair mediator.”

After being fired on by anti-aircraft artillery, U.S. warplanes bombed an Iraqi communications site near the northern city of Mosul.

July 14: Iranian hard-liners organized a two-hour “unity rally” in Tehran, drawing some 100,000 supporters.

Hashem Mahameed became the first Arab Israeli parliamentarian to be appointed to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.
In the 60th such attack since late December, U.S. warplanes patrolling the northern “no-fly” zone bombed Iraqi defense sites after reportedly being fired upon.
Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Baghdad to assist with the dismantling of a U.N. weapons inspection lab.

July 15: During a two-and-a-half hour White House meeting on the first day of his U.S. visit, Israeli Prime Minister Barak told President Clinton that Israel would never agree to return to its pre-1967 borders. During their closed-door meeting, the two men set a goal of 15 months for the conclusion of the peace process.

At an abbreviated meeting held over Israeli and U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly ruled that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Turkey offered to provide Israel with large amounts of drinking water via an undersea pipeline.
Ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova returned to the Kosovar capital of Pristina for the first time since his May 5 release from detention by the Yugoslav government.
Several hundred members of a Christian group apologized for the Crusades to religious leaders in Jerusalem.

July 16: Libya paid $31 million in compensation to the families of victims of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over the African desert.

Ethnic Albanian leader Rugova abruptly left Kosovo for Macedonia, as the province’s U.N.-sponsored government council was preparing to hold its inaugural meeting.
Jordan’s opposition Islamic Action Front won majorities in the main cities of Irbid, Zarqa and Russeifa.
U.S. warplanes bombed a communications center in northern Iraq.

July 17: Some 1,000 Pakistani-backed Islamic fighters completed their withdrawal from Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Iranian students announced a temporary ban on pro-reform demonstrations.
Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic appeared for the first time at a rally calling for the resignation of President Slobodan Milosevic.

July 18: Osama Barham, Israel’s longest-held administrative detainee since his arrest without charges in 1993, was released in return for forswearing violent activities.

Israeli Prime Minister Barak said Israel would buy 50 new U.S. F-16E fighter-bombers, with an option to order up to 60 more.
Turkish warplanes attacked Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, killing 5 people and wounding 10 more at a base of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
U.S. airstrikes in southern Iraq killed 14 civilians and wounded 17 others.
Representatives of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and opposition militia attended U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Tashkent.

July 19: President Clinton committed the U.S. to increase military aid to Israel by one-third over the next 10 years, to $2.4 billion annually; establish two joint defense committees; increase coordination between U.S. and Israeli space programs; provide additional U.S. aid for Israel’s Arrow anti-missile system; and promote the development of regional water sources. The U.S. president also promised to contact Syrian President Hafez al-Assad on Israel’s behalf.

Israel decided not to close Orient House, the unofficial headquarters of the PLO, in East Jerusalem.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army announced it would extend unilaterally a cease-fire in two southern provinces.

July 20: On the final day of his U.S. visit, Israeli Prime Minister Barak attempted to reassure Palestinian President Arafat that Israel would not wait 15 months to complete withdrawals from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A group of 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders condemned the recent “trial run of democracy.”
In three pre-dawn attacks, 20 Hindus were killed by Muslim insurgents in Kashmir, while Indian troops fired rockets at Pakistan-based fighters in the disputed province.

July 21: Iran’s moderate Khatami administration said it would prosecute three newspapers which printed a threatening letter from the Revolutionary Guards.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit announced that senior Kurdish rebel leader Cevat Soysal had been arrested in the former Soviet republic of Moldovia five days earlier and turned over to Turkish officials.

July 22: Top Barak aide Danny Yatom said Israel was prepared to resume negotiations with Syria at the point where they broke off in 1996, but rejected Syria’s description of that point as a commitment by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to withdraw from the entire Golan Heights.

July 23: King Hassan II of Morocco died at the age of 70. Hours later the throne was assumed by 36-year-old Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed.

The Clinton administration lifted restrictions on support for Serbian opposition and pro-democracy groups.
Fourteen Kosovar Serb farmers were shot to death as they were harvesting wheat near the village of Gracko, just south of the capital Pristina.
The Sudanese government rejected the recent rebel cease-fire proposal, saying it was too limited.

July 24: Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic accused NATO of allowing the ethnic purging of Serbs from Kosovo and of establishing an Albanian state in the province.

July 25: Israeli soldiers removed five mobile homes brought by Jewish settlers to expand a hilltop encampment near the illegal settlement of Shvut Rahel.

An Iranian court convicted the publisher of the pro-reform newspaper Salam, the closing of which sparked the recent student protests and police crackdown.
Kuwaiti Crown Prince Saad Abdullah Sabah refused to shake Palestinian President Arafat’s hand when the two men met at the funeral of Moroccan King Hassan.

July 26: At the invitation of Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Korei, became the highest-ranking Palestinian official ever to visit the Israeli legislature.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat said American farmers would be allowed to compete for some $2 billion in sales to Iran, Libya and Sudan, as food, medicine and medical equipment were exempted from U.S. economic sanctions on the three countries.

July 27: At their first working meeting, Palestinian President Arafat agreed to decide within two weeks whether to accept Israeli Prime Minister Barak’s proposal for a revised time frame for the implementation of the Wye agreement.

July 28: A Human Rights Watch report accused Israel of committing “war crimes” by expelling civilians from its occupation zone in southern Lebanon since 1985.

Pentagon officials said international computer hackers were using an Israeli Internet site for attacks on U.S. government and military computer systems.
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia launched a major offensive against opposition forces.
U.S. and British warplanes bombed targets in northern Iraq for a third straight day.

July 29: Following his second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Barak, Egyptian President Mubarak offered to mediate the impasse with Palestinian President Arafat over Barak’s proposal to reconfigure the Wye agreement.

President Clinton flew to Sarajevo to join leaders from more than 30 countries in launching a Balkan “stability pact” based on the post-World War II Marshall Plan.
U.S. officials said that two suspects detained in Sudan following the bombing of two American embassies in Africa were released after the U.S. retaliatory airstrike on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum.
U.S. and British airstrikes in southern Iraq killed 8 civilians and wounded 25 others.

July 30: House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt named Justice Department lawyer Juliette Kayyern, a Christian Lebanese-American, to replace Muslim American Salam Al-Marayati on the National Commission on Terrorism.

Nine Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded in U.S. and British airstrikes in northern and southern Iraq.

July 31: Palestinian officials rejected Israel’s request for changes in the Wye agreement.

Russian peacekeeping troops in Kosovo detained Gen. Gaim Ceku, military leader of the KLA, when he was unable to produce the special identification card allowing him to wear a uniform and carry a gun in public.
Morocco’s new King Mohammed VI issued a royal amnesty pardoning a record 7,988 prisoners and reducing the terms of 38,224 others.