Washington Report, December 17, 1984, Page 8

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

November 20:

A report on the Israeli economy prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and released today, charged that "even if the United States should greatly increase its aid (to Israel), it is abundantly clear that U.S. aid alone will neither cure nor even significantly ameliorate the structural problems that afflict the Israeli economy." The report said that Israel's current balance of payments problems "would probably be unmanageable" without U.S. assistance, which currently amounts to 12 percent of Israel's gross national product, according to the report.

November 25:

A group of 26 Jewish and Roman Catholic members of the House of Representatives made public a copy of a letter it was sending to Pope John Paul II, urging the Vatican to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

November 26:

The U.S. and Iraq announced the resumption of formal diplomatic relations. The announcement was made in Washington shortly after Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, met at the White House with President Reagan, Secretary of State George Shultz, and others. Iraq broke off ties with the U.S. 17 years ago during the 1967 Arab Israeli war.

November 26:

A senior State Department official briefing reporters at the White House said that the U.S.'s renewed relations with Iraq "should not be read as a step against Iran." The official said that the U.S. is "prepared today to discuss improved relations with Iran when Iran ceases its support for international terrorism," and, he said, "when Iran is prepared to seek a negotiated settlement of its war with Iraq."

December 6:

Robert B. Oakley, director of the State Department's Office for Combatting Terrorism, raised the possibility of "active collusion" between the government of Iran and four hijackers who, two days earlier, commandeered a Kuwaiti Airways flight bound for Karachi, Pakistan, and forced it to land in Tehran. Four Americans were among the passengers. Mr. Oakley said: "We feel that there is a great deal of sympathy, if not support and active collusion, on the part of the Iranian government, judging from the treatment which they have given this particular incident."

December 7:

President Reagan said that Iran has "not been as helpful" as he thought it could be in ending the hijacking crisis in Tehran. When asked if Iran was collaborating with the hijackers, Mr. Reagan said: "I have no evidence that I could lay out here that there was actual collaboration of the Iranians."

December 9:

Iranian security agents freed two Americans, four Kuwaitis and a British pilot being held captive aboard the hijacked Kuwaiti plane at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport. More than 100 passengers had already been released. Two members of a U.S. Agency for International Development auditing team, Charles Hegna and William Stanford, were shot and killed during the six day ordeal.

December 11:

The Reagan Administration issued a statement criticizing Iran's handling of the Kuwaiti Airways hijacking: "Two passengers were murdered by the hijackers, more were tortured and many were brutalized for an extended period of time without any effective measures being taken by the government of Iran. Granting selective media access, broadcasting statements and screams of tortured passengers, permitting photographers aboard the aircraft, clearly encouraged extreme behaviour by the hijackers."

December 11:

Defense Department spokesman Michael Burch announced that the U.S. had begun a "long planned" naval exercise with Israel in the Mediterranean. "Units of the USS Eisenhower battle group and the Israeli navy are conducting an antisubmarine exercise to practice antisubmarine warfare techniques," Mr. Burch said. "That exercise started today and will last a few days."