Washington Report, December 2, 1985, Page 8

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

November 3:

President Reagan ordered an investigation into the Washington Posts disclosure of a CIA plan to undermine the Libyan government headed by Muammar Qaddafi. Secretary of State Shultz and CIA Director William Casey insisted that the purpose of the plan was to stop terrorism, not to assassinate Qaddafi. Reagan has signed a longstanding executive order which bans the CIA or any other government agency from direct or indirect involvement in any assassination plan.

November 7:

Following a two-day meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat issued a statement renouncing terrorism against "unarmed civilians in all places" but affirming the Palestinians' right to wage an "armed struggle" in Israeli-occupied territories. Arafat did not say if he considered Israel proper part of the "occupied territories." A spokesman for the PLO said his organization hoped the U.S. would reevaluate its "anti-PLO policy" now that Arafat had renounced terrorism.

November 8:

Four of the six Americans missing in Lebanon sent letters to a Western news agency, one of which begged President Reagan "to negotiate with our captors." The White House responded by saying it would not "negotiate with terrorists." The day before, an anonymous caller claiming to represent the Islamic Jihad organization said his group would kill the American hostages it was still holding because "indirect negotiations" with the U.S. had "reached a dead end." The captors have demanded that Kuwait release 17 Iraqis and Lebanese convicted of carrying out car bomb attacks on American, French and other facilities in Kuwait.

November 9:

The FBI announced that the Jewish Defense League (JDL) was "the possible responsible group" for the October 11 assassination of Alex Odeh, a Southern California regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Irv Rubin, who succeeded Meir Kahane as head of the JDL, denied his organization was involved.

November 10:

On the tenth anniversary of passage of the United Nations General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism, the Israeli delegation to the U.N. and American Jewish leaders held a protest rally across the street from the U.N. and a conference inside the building demanding that the resolution be repealed. President Reagan sent a note to the protest organizers saying that "few events have so offended the American people" as that resolution. He said his Administration would do all it could to have it repealed.

November 13:

Prime Minister Peres demanded the resignation of Trade and Industry Minister Ariel Sharon, who had consistently attacked his recent peace initiatives towards Jordan. The controversial former defense minister had accused Peres of "leading the nation down a crooked path" and "deceiving" the public by conducting secret negotiations with King Hussein. Two days later, Peres accepted a letter of apology from Sharon, thus preventing the collapse of Israel's 14-month-old National Unity Government.

November 18:

Terry Waite, a special envoy of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Muncie, arrived in Beirut to seek the release of four Americans now being held hostage in Lebanon. Waite later said he had established "a measure of trust" with the captors and reported that the four Americans were in "satisfactory condition."

 November 19:

Prime Minister Peres said Israel would agree to a Soviet role in an international peaceconference if Moscow were to allow Jews to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union. Peres had earlier insisted the USSR renew diplomatic relations with Israel, broken during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, before it could participate in Mideast peace talks.

November 20:

The State Department issued a travel advisory to Americans not to travel to Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan, because it had become a base for Libyan and other "known terrorists" and posed "possible threats" to American interests.

November 21:

A civilian employee of the U.S. Navy was arrested by the FBI for allegedly selling classified information to Israel. Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. and held without bond. Other federal authorities said he had received less than $100,000 over the past 18 months for spying "for a foreign power."

November 24:

Maltese police announced an initial death toll of 60 persons killed by hijackers or during the storming by Egyptian commandos of an Egyptair jetliner hijacked on a routine Athens to Cairo flight. The plane had landed at Malta after a mid-air gunbattle between Egyptian security guards and four or five hijackers. When the hijackers began killing women passengers to dramatize their demands for fuel to continue the flight, Maltese authorities gave permission for Egyptian troops to assault the plane. Of three American passengers shot by the hijackers, one woman was killed, one critically wounded, and a man slightly wounded.