Facts For Your Files

A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

Compiled by Sara Powell

July 1: Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car carrying three West Bank Palestinian activists, killing them, while Israeli troops killed two Palestinians near Jenin, and a schoolboy, previously shot while throwing stones, died of his wounds.

— Israeli warplanes bombed a Syrian army position in Lebanon, wounding three Syrian and Lebanese soldiers. Hezbollah responded with mortar and artillery fire.

— Albanian forces took control of four Macedonian villages near Kosovo as international peace negotiators arrived in Skopje.

July 2: The U.S. and Britain abandoned their quest for “smart sanctions” against Iraq.

— The PFLP detonated two car bombs near Tel Aviv, causing light injuries, but an Israeli motorist was killed near Tulkaram as thousands of Palestinians marched in a funeral procession for three assassinated activists.

— Belgian courts ruled that an investigation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for war crimes could proceed.

— An American citizen, head of a U.S.-based Sufi Islamic sect, was arrested in Turkey for conducting group prayer without a permit and wearing banned religious clothing.

— President George W. Bush signed an order extending sanctions against Afghanistan.

July 3: Convicted Algerian terrorist Ahmed Ressam testified that Los Angeles International Airport was his intended target on Jan. 1, 2000.

— The U.N. Security Council voted to extend the Iraq oil-for-food program for five months. Meanwhile a senior Iraqi U.N. delegate requested political asylum in New York.

— Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arraigned before an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

July 4: The Israeli government reiterated its commitment to assassination as a policy.

July 5: Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk criticized Israelis and Palestinians for their behavior toward each other.

— The Palestinian cabinet called for international monitors and immediate implementation of CIA Director George Tenet’s plan for resuming negotiations.

— The U.S. ambassador to Yemen barred an FBI operative from returning to investigate the bombing of the USS Cole.

— A German man was arrested in Arizona for smuggling military aircraft parts to Iran.

— The Macedonian government and Albanian rebels signed an open-ended peace agreement brokered by NATO.

July 6: Chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal Carla Del Ponte demanded that the Croatian government turn over several high-ranking indicted suspects.

July 7: The Coalition for Justice in Iraq announced that one of two Iraqi diplomats who defected last week might have files on Kuwaiti prisoners of war.

— Israeli troops killed a young boy, the 17th Palestinian killed since a cease-fire began.

— Four ministers resigned in protest over Croatia’s agreement to send two senior war crimes suspects to The Hague for trial. n Russian soldiers looted and vandalized as they arrested some 1,500 Chechnyans, following four soldiers’ deaths by land mines.

July 8: Over 200 Bosnian Muslim bodies were found buried near the Yugoslav border.

— Philippine authorities arrested one of the leaders of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf for holding hostages, including three Americans.

July 9: Israeli tanks and bulldozers razed 14 Palestinian homes in Shufat refugee camp.

— The Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission was formed to advance dialogue, with hopes of leading to official talks.

— Croatians protested the government’s decision to turn over accused war criminals for trial in The Hague.

— The Russian administrator of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, chastised the military for its excesses in a violent roundup of civilians.

July 10: U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Thomas Miller accused a Serbian political party of protecting the “Butcher of Srebrenica” from trial for war crimes.

— A federal jury in New York made a binding recommendation for life without parole for a Tanzanian convicted of bombing the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

— Hezbollah protested a U.N. decision to give Israel access to a video of the capture in Lebanon of three Israeli soldiers, saying it would violate the U.N. peacekeepers’ neutrality.

— The U.S. rebuked Israel for demolishing 26 Palestinian homes in Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp.

— Iraq formally agreed to a five-month extension of the “oil-for-food” program.

— Another hunger-striking Turkish prison inmate died, bringing the total to 28.

July 11: Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman near a West Bank roadblock, and Israeli police disarmed a Palestinian of a bomb.

— The Islamic Development Bank released $54 million for Palestinian relief.

July 12: President Bush discussed U.S. aid to and involvement in Algeria with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the White House.

— The U.S. criticized Israel and Saudi Arabia for tolerating the international slave trade.

— Settlers rampaged against Palestinians, their homes, cars, and olive groves while Israeli tanks shelled police stations near Nablus and Hebron. Two Palestinians were killed and several Palestinians and Israelis wounded.

— Iraq resumed oil exports after a five-week hiatus in protest of “smart sanctions.”

— Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi was appointed the Arab League’s first media commissioner.

— Human Rights Watch said rival political groups share the blame with the Taliban for the worsening plight of the Afghan people.

— Macedonians and separatist Albanians clashed, breaking a week-old cease-fire.

July 13: An Algerian man was convicted of conspiracy to bomb U.S. targets in Seattle and Los Angeles.

— Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy machine guns ravaged Palestinian-controlled areas of Hebron after one Palestinian was assassinated and another killed by soldiers. An Israeli died of earlier wounds and two others were killed.

— The IMF reissued a loan to Turkey.

July 14: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met with U.S. envoy David Satterfield to discuss possibilities for ending the current situation in Palestine.

— Three of the bodies found in a mass grave in Serbia were Albanian-American brothers.

— Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf arrived in India for an India-Pakistan summit, the first since their 1999 war, while border clashes killed 29.

— Philippine President Gloria Arroyo cracked down on Muslim sympathizers of the Abu Sayyaf insurgents.

July 15: The Knesset agreed to build new towns in a part of the Negev previously offered to Palestinians as part of a land swap during the 2000 Camp David negotiations.

— Palestinian leader Arafat and Israeli Foreign Defense Minister Shimon Peres held an unscheduled, unproductive meeting in Cairo.

— Twenty Muslim Kashmiris protesting talks between India and Pakistan were killed in skirmishes.

July 16: A prestigious New York art dealer was indicted for illegally dealing in ancient art from Egypt and producing false documents to prove the art was not stolen.

— The PA condemned a suicide bombing which killed the Palestinian bomber and two Israeli soldiers. As Israel opened an international sports competition for Jews, Israeli tanks shelled four Palestinian police posts near Jenin and Tulkaram.

— The Croatian government survived a no-confidence vote following its decision to extradite two senior officials to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

— While talks between Albanians and the Macedonian government progressed, hundreds of Macedonian citizens protested against any concessions.

— Serbs in largely Muslim Kosovo dedicated the first Christian Orthodox church to exist there since 1999.

— Talks between India and Pakistan ended suddenly, unsuccessfully, and bitterly.

July 17: Daniel Kurtzer became the first Orthodox Jewish U.S. ambassador to Israel.

— Israel assassinated four Palestinians by guided missile in Bethlehem. Palestinians later fired a mortar at Gilo.

— Israel arrested a man suspected of participating in the October killing of two undercover agents at a Ramallah police station.

— Sudan lifted a three-year old travel ban on U.S. officials imposed after the U.S. bombed a pharmaceutical plant near Khartoum.

— The EU Court of Human Rights found that four ex-deputies, including one Kurd, had not received a fair trial in Turkey.

— Though blaming the other for shortcomings in negotiations, Pakistani and Indian ministers said talks between the two nations had not failed, but led to deeper understanding.

— In Macedonia, negotiations on Albanian as a second official language broke down.

July 18: The U.S. blocked a bid by Iran to join the World Trade Organization.

— Israel stationed tanks north and south of Bethlehem and near Jenin.

— Britain, France, Germany and Italy proposed sending impartial outside observers to monitor the situation in Palestine and Israel.

— In Somalia, land mines laid by camel herders to protest clear-cutting by charcoal makers killed four people and injured four.

— Serbian officials denied responsibility for the deaths of three Albanian-American brothers last seen alive when they were in official custody.

— The war crimes tribunal revealed the existence of an indictment against another Bosnian Serb, Stojan Zupljanin, former head of security services, for genocide, torture, persecution, and deportation.

July 19: An American F-16 en route to patrol over Iraq crashed in Turkey. There were no injuries.

— The U.S. reversed an earlier decision and joined the rest of the G-8 in calling for international third-party monitors in Israel and Palestine.

— Militant Israeli settlers killed three Palestinians, including a three-month-old baby, in an ambush near Hebron.

— Despite Macedonian condemnation of Western intervention and Albanian boycotts of the talks, the U.S. and the EU worked to keep peace talks alive.

July 20: Iraq and Turkey resumed regular train service between the two countries.

— A land mine in Macedonia killed two international monitors and their interpreter.

July 21: The Muslim Political Coordinating Committee of New York endorsed Mark Green for mayor.

— Albanian separatists took control of Tetovo, a large city in an Albanian area of Macedonia.

— Five pilgrims, four porters, two policemen, and a militant in disguise were killed, and 15 wounded, when Hindu pilgrims were attacked by grenades in Kashmir.

July 22: Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denounced Prime Minister Sharon’s government for being too easy on the Palestinians.

July 23: Israeli forces killed a Palestinian suspected of belonging to Islamic Jihad.

— In an attempt to retain power, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid issued an emergency decree to disband parliament. In response the Indonesian legislature—bolstered by troops—convened an emergency session to strike the ruling and voted Wahid out of office. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri was named the new president.

— Seven people died and at least 21 more were wounded in renewed gunbattles in Tetovo as talks continued between Macedonians and Albanians.

July 24: Former President Jimmy Carter criticized current President Bush for not taking a strong position on the removal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank.

— President Bush visited U.S. troops in Kosovo, calling their presence “essential.”

— Palestinian demonstrators, including members of Fatah, protested PA security chief Moussa Arafat’s arrest of eight militants.

— The body of an Israeli teen was discovered near Ramallah.

— British Petroleum ceased oil exploration in the Caspian Sea after being threatened by an Iranian naval vessel.

— Some 200 Macedonian protesters stoned the American Embassy in Skopje for allegedly siding with Albanian separatists. No one was injured, but non-essential personnel were evacuated. The British and German embassies, a McDonalds, and the British Airways offices were also attacked. Meanwhile Albanians continued fighting, surrounding four more villages and holding four OSCE officials hostage for several hours.

July 25: The U.S. Senate voted to extend sanctions on Libya and Iran for five years.

— Iraq narrowly missed when it fired at a U.S. U-2 aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone.

— Palestinian security forces turned over the body of an Israeli teen from the Pisgat Zeev settlement near Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers in Gaza wounded a Palestinian boy with gunshots to the chest.

— Denmark backed down on a threat to arrest the new Israeli ambassador to Denmark on charges of torture during his tenure as the head of Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service.

— The Macedonian government agreed on a new cease-fire with separatist Albanians.

July 26: Israel assassinated Hamas activist Saleh Darwazeh with five anti-tank missiles fired at Darwazeh’s car. An Israeli teen later was killed in a drive-by shooting.

— The Taliban agreed to set up camps and repatriate refugees in Afghanistan.

— A Croatian army general, Rahim Ademi, surrendered to the war crimes tribunal on charges that his troops killed Serbian civilians.

July 27: The U.S. announced it would not attend the U.N. conference against racism if Zionism as racism was on the agenda.

— Israel hired a Belgian lawyer to defend Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against a war crimes lawsuit.

July 29: Israeli police used tear gas and stun grenades on Palestinians throwing shoes and stones in a clash at the Al Aqsa mosque, leaving 35 Palestinians and 15 Israelis wounded.

— India accepted an invitation from Pakistan for more talks.

— While a cease-fire held, Macedonian-Albanian peace talks stalled.

July 30: Six Fatah members were assassinated in Jenin, and helicopters fired on Gaza City, wounding seven people and destroying police headquarters. Two Israeli police were critically injured in a drive-by shooting near Tulkaram.

July 31: Eight Palestinians, including two young boys, were assassinated by Israeli missiles fired at a Hamas office in Nablus. Two other Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and five Israelis wounded in drive-by shootings.

— The Bosnian Serb parliament voted to cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal, which sentenced the former Bosnian Serb police chief to 10 years in prison.