Washington Report, August 11, 1986, Page 18

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

June 18:

A knowledgeable Reagan Administration source said the Justice Department has decided to seek an indictment of Israeli Air Force officer Brigadier Aviem Sella for his alleged role in connection with the Pollard spy case. The official, who spoke to the press on the condition that he not be identified, said reports that the Israeli officer would be granted immunity were untrue.

June 18:

John Cardinal O'Connor, the Archbishop of New York, said in Italy following a three-day trip to Lebanon that "Somehow, a homeland has to be provided for the Palestinian people .... It's not for me to talk about statehood or protocol or official recognition or whatever. But from a moral perspective, those people have to be given a homeland."

June 20:

Former hostage Benjamin Weir, the newly-elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA), criticized the Reagan Administration for not working actively enough to secure the release of the five Americans still being held in Lebanon.

June 21:

Senior Reagan Administration officials said the Soviet Union was quietly pressuring the Libyan government to stop sponsoring terrorist attacks against Americans and American targets.

June 22:

The Reagan Administration, in a move designed to tighten its economic sanctions against Libya, banned the export to third countries of goods and technology destined for eventual use in the Libyan oil industry.

June 24:

The United States and Italy signed an agreement in Rome to combine intelligence resources in the fight against international terrorism. The agreement expands a 1984 U.S.-Italian accord on cooperation against drug trafficking and organized crime to encompass anti-terrorism efforts.

June 25:

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Murphy met in Sweden with his Soviet counterpart Vladimir Polyakov to discuss recent developments in the Middle East. The meeting is one of a series agreed to by President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev during their summit meeting in Geneva last year.

June 25:

A high-ranking Egyptian economic team, led by Planning Minister Kamal Ganzouri, in Washington for talks with U.S. officials about the difficulties facing the Egyptian government, asked the Reagan Administration to convert $500 million in U.S. economic aid from a loan to a cash grant to mitigate effects of an expected $3 billion decline in Egypt's foreign exchange earnings this year.

June 25:

The Senate adopted by voice vote an amendment proposed by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) to prohibit the construction of any new U.S. diplomatic facilities in Israel unless they are located within five miles of the Israeli Knesset building. If ultimately adopted, Helm's amendment would imply U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel-recognition that the U.S. has eschewed to date.

June 29:

U.S. Representative Robert Dornan (R-CA) delivered a letter from 251 Members of Congress to Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad asking for the Syrian leader's assistance in securing the freedom of five Americans being held captive in Lebanon by the Islamic Jihad organization.

June 30:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia officially took possession of the first of five AWACS radar planes it purchased from the U.S. in 1981. Saud Arabia's Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, accepted the plane from its builder, Boeing Co., in Washington state.

June 30:

Assistant Secretary of State Michael Armacost said the five U.S. oil companies—Conoco, Marathon, Amerada Hess, Occidental and Grace—with business interests in Libya had terminated their operations in that country and were now in full compliance with the economic sanctions announced earlier this year by the Reagan Administration.

July 2:

An American who claimed he was on an undercover mission for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Lebanon and that a ransom had been paid by his family was freed by his captors after being held for more than a year in the Bekaa Valley by unidentified gunmen. White House officials said they believe the case of Steven Donahue, the freed American, was unrelated to the politically motivated kidnappings of five other Americans still missing in Lebanon.

July 2:

The Jerusalem Post said that West German authorities are investigating the alleged involvement of the Israeli government in a deal to sell an estimated $82 million in U.S. weaponry—including TOW anti-tank missiles—to Iran.

July 3:

U.S. State Department Counsel Abraham Sofaer met in Tel Aviv with Israeli and Egyptian negotiators in an effort to resolve the Taba border dispute. Following the meeting, one Israeli official said: "We're close to a deal with Egypt that would mean a breakthrough on Taba and on normalisation."

July 6:

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative, Washington-based think-tank, released a study calling for even closer strategic and military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel to deter Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean Sea and Gulf regions.

July 8:

U.S. authorities issued subpoenas and search warrants for a number of employees at three U.S. companies and Israel's purchasing mission in New York City in connection with an investigation into alleged Israeli efforts illegally to acquire sophisticated U.S. technology to produce cluster bombs. Exports to Israel of U.S.-made cluster bombs were banned by the Reagan administration in 1982 following widespread reports that Israel had used the deadly weapons during its invasion of Lebanon.

July 8:

Britain's Jane's DefenseWeekly reported that Jordan has concluded a deal to purchase surface-to-air missiles from the Soviet Union because of the collapse earlier this spring—as a result of congressional pressure—of the long-planned $1.6 billion U.S. arms sale to the kingdom. The magazine said that the deal includes 100 SA-8 Gecko and SA-13 Gopher missile systems.

July 10:

State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb rejected a Soviet proposal for the convening of a preliminary Mideast peace conference, saying that such a meeting could lead to "posturing and rhetorical excess instead of real hard suggestions." Kalb also said that if the Soviet Union truly wanted to play a constructive regional role it should resume diplomatic relations with Israel.

July 10:

Israeli military sources said two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians were killed and nine other Israelis were wounded in a gun battle on the Lebanese coast just north of the Israeli border. After the battle, Israeli aircraft raided several Palestinian refugee camps on the outskirts of the Lebanese city of Sidon, killing or wounding at least ten people.

July 13:

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman confirmed that the U.S. Navy had been conducting "routine exercises" off the Libyan coast, but refused to say how close the maneuvers are to the disputed Gulf of Sidra. Following this announcement, a Libyan government official said that the Libyan Navy had begun a three-day missile-firing exercise in the Gulf, while the country's official news agency, JANA, warned that the U.S. was "playing with fire and risking the life of mankind."