Washington Report, December 1988, Page 38

Facts For Your Files: A Chronology of US-Mideast Relations

October 5: President Reagan denied former Iranian President Abolhassan ani-Sadr's statement that US officials had been negotiating for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon.

October 6: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) denied allegations that it was directly involved in organizing support for specific candidates in the 1988 political campaign. The allegations arose from two AIPAC memos reported in the Washington Post, one urging reporters to focus on rumors concerning Jesse Jackson's personal life, and the other suggesting that AIPAC organized fundraising for Richard Licht's Rhode Island senatorial campaign against John Chafee.

The Reagan administration agreed to extend consular immunity to 50 Israeli nationals working in the Israeli military purchasing and trade missions in New York, including some who were suspected of illegally exporting US military equipment.

October 7: The US finalized plans to send bomb-disposal experts to Pakistan to teach Afghan refugees to disarm and destroy millions of mines scattered across Afghanistan.

October 9: Civil rights activists in Jerusalem denounced the Israeli army's policy of using plastic bullets to increase injuries to Palestinians to discourage demonstrations. The protest came after one of the bloodiest weekends of the uprising, which left at least nine Palestinians dead.

October 11: The US Senate approved a measure barring the export to Iraq of weapons, technology, and chemicals that could be used to make chemical weapons, and requiring the US to oppose loans to Iraq by international financial institutions.

October 13: US Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy told a House panel that Iran has agreed with the Reagan administration that the two governments would not work through private individuals in discussions concerning American hostages held by Iranian-affiliated Shi'ite groups in Lebanon.

The US Agency for International Development and the government of Sudan announced an emergency food airlift to southern Sudan, where thousands of people face starvation.

October 14: A US federal appeals court judge ruled that the written confession of suspected Lebanese Shiite hijacker Fawaz Yunis could be used as evidence against him despite protests that his rights had been violated during FBI interrogations.

Hani Hassan, an adviser to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, said that the PLO is willing to join with Jordan in a confederation-style government to satisfy US and Israeli objections to an independent Palestinian state.

October 17: Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he would allow Palestinians in the occupied territories to elect their own representatives to peace negotiations if the Labor Party wins parliamentary elections Nov. 1.

Iran announced that it would agree to Iraq's demand to begin dredging operations in the Shatt al Arab waterway as part of the cease-fire agreement between the two countries.

Leaders of the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League criticized AIPAC opposition to a Kuwaiti arms deal, its efforts to shut down the PLO mission to the United Nations, and its efforts to deny Yasser Arafat a US visa to address the UN, saying that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is out of step with the Jewish community.

October 18: Two Palestinian boys, ages 5 and 14, were killed by plastic bullets fired by Israeli troops. Five other persons, including an American photographer, were wounded in clashes in Nablus.

The West Bank Database Project, a non-profit human rights group, accused Israel of operating a double-standard system of justice in the West Bank and Gaza, citing instances in which Palestinians were punished more severely than Israeli citizens.

October 18: The Wall Street Journal reported that the State Department is trying to stop a planned Reagan administration review of complaints that Israel is mistreating Palestinian workers.

October 19: Seven Israeli soldiers were killed and 10 people injured when a suicide car bomber blew up his van in a convoy of army vehicles in Israel's security zone in Lebanon, 300 yards north of the Israeli border.

State Department officials said the Reagan administration denied a request from international arms dealers to sell F5 righter planes from Chile to Iran as part of a deal to free American hostages.

The Washington Post reported that Daniel Sowada, the head of the US team sent to investigate the cause of the plane crash that killed Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphael, told members of Congress sabotage could not be ruled out.

October 20: Two non-partisan press-monitoring groups criticized Israeli suppression of Palestinian newspapers, harassment and detention of Palestinian reporters, photographers, and editors, and over-regulation of the Palestinian press. The Israeli government denied the charges.

Israeli artillery shelled three Shi'ite villages in southern Lebanon in retaliation for the soldiers killed in a car bomb attack. The Middle East Times reported 17 people dead and at least 40 injured.

October 21: A George Bush presidential campaign spokesman denied published charges that the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign conspired with the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime to delay the release of 52 US Embassy hostages in Tehran until after the November 1980 elections.

The Israeli government bombed and rocketed what it described as the main Hezbollah headquarters and Palestinian bases in Lebanon in retaliation for the attack on Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. A four-year-old boy was among the 15 dead. Another 35 persons were wounded.

Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci criticized opponents of US arms sales to Arab countries, saying the US is losing "tens of billions of dollars worth of jobs" and political influence in the area.

October 23: The Washington Post reported that Israel failed in an attempt to force Jews emigrating from the Soviet Union on Israeli visas to resettle in Israel rather than the US. The Reagan administration regards the Israeli effort as violating freedom of choice in emigration.

October 24: Strategic Defense Initiative program director Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson said that Israel is the largest foreign participant in the SDI program, receiving research funds worth $165 million of the $9 billion spent on the program.