April 19—Israeli troops killed one Arab and wounded three others while breaking up demonstrations opposing the April 16 march by Israelis across the occupied West Bank.

April 21-It was reported that China had agreed to supply military equipment and economic aid to Egypt.

April 25-Jordanian officials were reported to have announced that the United States had agreed to lower the price of Hawk missile systems and that the Jordanian Government was discussing the American offer with Saudi Arabia in an effort to persuade the latter to finance the deal.

April 26-Two Israeli newspapers reported that Syrian President al-Assad had indicated his readiness to meet with President Ford and that the meeting might take place before May 31, the expiration date for the mandate of U.N. peacekeeping forces on the Golan Heights. (White House Deputy Press Secretary John Carlson subsequently said that there was an "open possibility' that Ford would meet with Al-Assad in the near future.)

April 26-A four-member Egyptian delegation, led by Trade Minister Zakaria Tewfig, arrived in Moscow to conduct talks with Soviet officials.

April 26-Egyptian President al-Sadat suggested at a Cairo news conference that Egypt would delare a state of nonbelligerency if Israel withdrew from Arab territory seized in 1967.

April 28-Israeli Defense Minister Peres said Syrian involvement in the Lebanese civil war was part of an overall plan to take over the country in order to stage future attacks against Israel.

April 29-Eleven Mauritanian soldiers and 27 Polisario guerrillas were killed in a 2-day clash in Western Sahara.

April 30-In a major blow to Syrian efforts to achieve a solution to the civil strife in Lebanon, heavy fighting and extremist opposition forced the Lebanese Parliament to postpone elections for a new President. May 3-Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmi called for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council, with PLO participation, to discuss Israel's "measures of oppression and terrorism" in the West Bank and Gaza against the Palestinian people. (Israeli officials subsequently called the Egyptian request an infringement of the September 1975 Sinai agreement by which Egypt pledged to tone down its diplomatic warfare against Israel.)

May 4-Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Akins said before the Senate Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations that the State Department had ignored Saudi offers to roll back oil price increases and to prevent the establishment of a Soviet Indian Ocean base in Somalia. May 6-Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, in a speech marking his country's 28th anniversary of independence, vowed that Israel would "maintain law. and public order" in territory captured from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. (Previously, he had warned Israelis that the United States eventually may waiver from its present firm stand against talks with the PLO.) May 9-In a speech in Baltimore, Secretary Kissinger, warning that continuation of the status quo constituted the greatest risk in the Middle

East, said negotiations must take place between all parties in the region, conceding that "any negotiation will require Israel to exchange territory in return for political and therefore much less concrete concessions." (Kissinger reaffirmed the United States' commitment to Israel's survival and security and stated there could be "no imposed solutions" to a Middle East settlement by outside powers.)

May 9-The Israeli Cabinet adopted a compromise plan to deal with Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, declaring that future settlements would be approved only in the Jordan valley and along the pre-1967war border between the West Bank and Israel.

May 9-Federal Energy Administrator Frank Zarb confirmed in Tehran that some American defense contractors and the Iranian government were discussing a possible trade of Iranian oil for American arms, but he said no firm arrangements had as yet been concluded.

May 10-State Department spokesman Robert Funseth, commenting on the Lebanese election on May 8 of Elias Sarkis to succeed outgoing President Sulaiman Franjieh, said that the United States hoped "the Lebanese constitutional process continues to go forward and, as before, we stand ready to help in any way we can in keeping with our goal of preserving the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity, and national cohesion of Lebanon." (The subsequent outbreak of fresh fighting in that country, however, wrecked immediate hopes for peace between the various factions.)

May 10-A World Health Organization (WHO) report on conditions in the West Bank and Gaza described health services as improved since Israeli occupation began in 1967, with some now on a high technical level. (On May 17, the World Health assembly in Geneva, on the initiative of India and Arab states, approved by a 65–18 vote, with 14 abstentions, a motion declaring the WHO report "inadmissible.")

May 10-In an interview published in the Jerusalem Post, President Ford said it was time to discuss an overall settlement of the Middle East conflict, and that the United States had "gone about as far as we can in the step-by-step process" of Arab-Israeli negotiations.

May 11-The New York Times reported that Israel was drawing up plans for the establishment of a large number of settlements, ranging from agricultural villages to industrial towns, in the occupied Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Jordan valley, and the Rafah area of Gaza over the next several years.

May 12-Israeli Prime Minister Rabin declared that there was a chance both Egypt and Syria would agree to negotiations to end the state of war with Israel sometime in 1976.

May 12-Israeli Foreign Minister Allon warned that the recently reported cooperation between Egypt and the PLO would turn back the clock on relations between Egypt and Israel.

May 13-Speaking in Washington before the American Jewish Committee, President Ford declared that the United States "will remain the ultimate guarantor of Israel's freedom," and that "the fundamental American-Israeli friendship" would not be eroded despite differences that may arise between the two countries.

May 14-It was reported that Secretary Kissinger and Israeli Ambassador Dinitz had agreed on a formula for continued U.S. military aid to Israel and had discussed the dangers of a general Middle East war stemming from the renewed fighting in Lebanon. (Kissinger also was reported to have emphasized U.S. opposition to Israeli plans to establish more Jewish settlements in occupied Arab territories.)

May 15-PLO leaders appealed to Syria to end its military intervention in Lebanon and its involvement "in a bloody conflict against the national movement and the Palestinian revolution" for its own political purposes. (The growing dispute between Syria and the PLO centered on the Syrian land and sea blockade of territory held by Palestinians and the Lebanese Muslim-Leftist Alliance; and on Palestinian concern over Syrian efforts to bring the guerrilla movement under its control to permit pursuit of a policy of accommodation with the United States and Israel.)

May 15-Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Chaim Herzog denounced the terrorist activities of the Jewish Defense League in New York, calling it a small, irresponsible group.

May 16-Nabil Shaat, head of the PLO planning section, said in Brussels that all Israeli Jews will be formally recognized as Palestinians by the Palestinian National Council under a planned amendment to article 6 of the PLO National Covenent. (The amendment would bring the Covenant in line with the PLO program for a democratic, secular Palestinian state for all its inhabitants irrespective of religion.)

May 16-At the seventh Islamic Conference in Istanbul, foreign ministers from 40 Muslim nations passed a resolution on the Middle East urging Islamic countries to sever all relations with Israel and equating Zionism with racism. (The Conference also established a $60 million fund to counter Israeli rule in occupied Arab territories.)

May 16-Eleven terrorists and four policemen were killed in shootouts at three Marxist guerrilla hideouts in a residential section of Tehran. May 17-A Soviet delegation, led by Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Kutakhov and two air force generals, arrived in Jordan for 4 days of talks on Jordanian air defense needs in response to an invitation by Jordanian air force commander General Aboud Salim.

May 17-Libyan Prime Minister Jalloud unexpectedly arrived in Beirut in an apparent attempt to mediate the rift between Syria and Palestinian and Muslim factions in the Lebanese civil war. (Jalloud had flown from Damascus, where he had met with Syrian President al-Assad, and was accompanied by PLO Chairman Arafat.)

May 17-A report published by Amnesty International stated that hundreds of persons had "disappeared" in the People's Democratic Republic of the Yemen and that several thousand political prisoners were held in that country.

May 18-The financial weekly Barron's stated that after two decades of spectacular economic growth, Israel was running into severe recession, and its dependence on American aid was causing considerable

concern.

May 19-In a report to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by Senators Javits, Haskell, Stevenson, and Abourezk, who recently had returned from the Middle East, it was recommended that Israel withdraw from, and return, occupied Arab territories as a necessary step toward achieving peace in that region.

May 20-It was reported that internal problems in Syria, in part generated by the government's intervention in Lebanon, were responsible for the abrupt cancellation of Syria's scheduled conference with Egypt in Riyadh, with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait acting as mediators, to resolve differences between the two countries. (The Syrian Government on May 19 had announced the postponement "to permit further consultation.")

May 23—A senior State Department official indicated that the United States was giving serious consideration to an offer by France to send peacekeeping forces into Lebanon. (Lebanese Prime Minister Karami joined Muslim-Leftist Alliance factions in rejecting the French offer, stating that Lebanon "will never go back to the days of the mandate.") May 25-Iranian Prime Minister Hoveyda announced that Iran had signed contracts to purchase two nuclear powerplants from France.

May 25-The State Department announced that the Soviet Union was permitting a slightly higher level of emigration since the Helsinki Conference, but the level still remained far below that when detente was in full bloom.

May 26 The U.N. Security Council issued a majority opinion deploring the establishment of Israeli settlements on Arab territories, but the United States rejected the measure. (The opinion called upon Israel to rescind actions altering the character of occupied Arab lands and deplored the Israeli practice of setting up new villages there.) May 26 Following unannounced discussions between Soviet and Israeli diplomats in Washington and at the United Nations, initiated by the Soviets, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that the Foreign Ministry had issued instructions requiring home-office authorization prior to further contacts with Soviet representatives.

May 26-Secretary Kissinger, speaking before a Conference of Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) ministers in London, said that the time was approaching "when new impetus must be given to movement towards an overall peace" in the Middle East, and that the civil war in Lebanon had "preoccupied the attention of many of the parties" in the region. (Iranian Foreign Minister Khalatbari declared at the conference that the passage of recent events in southern Africa-the Soviet-supported Cuban invasion of Angola "could repeat themselves in our immediate neighborhood with disastrous repercussions.")

May 27-U.N. Secretary General Waldheim announced that Syria had agreed to extend the mandate for the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights for a further 6 months.

May 27-Saudi Arabian King Khalid concluded 4 days of talks with the Shah of Iran and other Iranian officials reportedly aimed at resolving differences over the price of oil and at promoting security arrangements in the Persian Gulf.

May 27-In Beirut, gunmen forced their way into the home of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt's sister, Mrs. Linda al-Atrash, killing her and wounding her two daughters, thereby compelling a postponement of talks between Jumblatt and President-elect Sarkis for a week.

May 27-Israeli U.N. Ambassador Herzog rejected the U.S. position that the establishment of Jewish settlements on Arab lands constituted an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

May 28-A report by the International Commission of Jurists on human rights and the legal system in Iran declared that the Iranian Government had not implemented basic civil and political rights of its citizens and that "there is abundant evidence showing the systematic use of impermissible methods of psychological and physical torture of political suspects during interrogation."

May 30-Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmi recommended that the Arab League revise the status of the PLO from that of an observer to full membership in order to "bolster [the PLO's] international position and give it significant weight."

May 31-Syria moved fresh troops into northern Lebanon to block a Muslim-Leftist Alliance seige of two Christian towns in the Akkar valley. (Lebanese Druze leader Jumblatt and moderate Christian leader Roymond Edde subsequently charged that the United States had agreed to a plan whereby Lebanon would be partitioned, with most of the country moving under Syrian control.)

May 31-Israel and South Africa announced a program to strengthen scientific and technological relations.

June 1-A Syrian task force, including an armored brigade, entered eastcentral Lebanon in an effort to halt fighting between that country's warring factions. (The PLO issued a statement charging that the invasion was "the beginning of a Syrian occupation" of Lebanon. Israeli Foreign Minister Allon declared that Israel had the right "to take the necessary measures to protect our interests" if its security were threatened by the Syrian move. State Department spokesman Robert Funseth said the United States "continues to warn all concerned about the dangers of escalating a civil strife into an international conflict.")

June 1-White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen stated that President Ford had instructed members of his administration to seek an overall peace settlement for the Middle East, and that Ford and his advisers were studying the possibility of a preliminary meeting of all parties concerned in Geneva to be followed by a full-scale conference.

June 1-Israeli Foreign Minister Allon called for a meeting between Israel, Jordan, and leaders of the occupied West Bank to discuss the territory's future.

June 1-Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin arrived in Damascus from Iraq for 3 days of talks with Syrian President al-Assad and other officials. (The Defense Department announced that since May 27 the Soviet Union had increased its Mediterranean fleet to 65 ships, including a helicopter carrier.)

June 3-Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmi, in a letter to Arab League Secretary General Mahoud Riad, condemned the Syrian intervention into Lebanon and called for an urgent meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the situation.