ment "to promote and intensify cooperation" between the three countries, condemnation of the continuation of fighting in Lebanon, and a declaration of support—in the wake of the July 2 abortive coup in Khartoum— for the "heroic Sudanese people in their confrontation with conspiracies, aggression and sedition."

July 18-Israeli devalued its pound by a further 2 percent-the fourteenth in a series of devaluations since November 1974. (The Israeli Government also decided to link its pound to the U.S. dollar, the pound sterling, the West German mark, the French franc, and the Dutch guilder, in a move designed to improve Israeli exports; previously, it had been tied only to the U.S. dollar.)

July 18-According to two studies prepared by the State Department's Office of the Inspector General of Foreign Assistance and released by Representative Aspin, it was necessary that "major improvements in contact management" be made or "Iran will not develop the desired defense capabilities and our relations could suffer unavoidable strain." (Aspin charged that "the management of some contracts appears to be absolute anarchy.")

July 18-Libyan Minister of State Muhammad az-Zawi announced in Kuwait that his government had dispatched French-built Mirage jet aircraft to Uganda to replace Soviet-supplied MIG jets that had been destroyed by Israeli commandos at Entebbe.

July 18-The Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that finance ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates had initialed an agreement in Cairo establishing a $2 billion fund to help finance development in Egypt.

July 19-In an interview published in Newsweek, Jordanian King Hussain said that the PLO had weakened its argument, because of its role in the Lebanese civil war, that Jews, Muslims, and Christians could live in harmony side by side in a future greater Palestine; and that it can "now be seen that Arabs themselves, citizens of the same country, not only cannot coexist but collide day and night." (Hussain also stated that the Israelis were "dangerously complacent" and, unless the momentum toward peace was resumed, there would be "a rapid deterioration toward another explosion.")

July 19-Following talks in London between Oman Sultan Qabus and the British Government, it was announced that the Royal Air Force will withdraw from its staging airfield on Masirah Island, off the coast of Oman, in March 1977, and will hand over operations of the airfield at Salalah, Dhofar Province, to the Omani authorities. (British pilots and other staff seconded to the Sultan's forces will not be affected by the agreement.)

July 19-The State Department announced that negotiations had been completed on a draft agreement for the United States to sell nuclear power reactors to Israel and Egypt.

July 20-Syrian President al-Assad, in a broadcast speech, rejected Palestinian demands that he withdraw Syrian forces from Lebanon, stating that the Palestinians had “no right, legal or otherwise, to demand the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon," and that they were "fighting a battle that has nothing to do with their cause." (Al-Assad said

that Syrian troops would leave only at the request of Lebanese President Franjieh or other legitimate officials.)

July 20-The Paris newspaper Le Monde reported that Soviet Communist Party Chairman Brezhnev had accused Syria of prolonging the civil war in Lebanon, and had requested the Damascus government to withdraw its forces.

July 20-A joint communique issued in Cairo announced the conclusion of a 25-year defense pact between Egypt and the Sudan, signed by the leaders of the two countries on July 15.

July 21-A partial truce between Christian and Palestinian forces in Lebanon was shattered by a mortar attack on an Arab League peacekeeping unit and by renewed fighting around the Palestinian refugee camp of Tal Zaatar.

July 21-Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, referring to reports that Israel apparently was supplying arms to Christians in Lebanon, denied that his country was involved in the civil war and declared it would not intervene unless its security was threatened. (State Department spokesman Robert Funseth, responding to questions concerning reports of Lebanese Maronite forces receiving covert arms supplies from Israel, stated that the United States "has not approved directly or indirectly the transfer of arms by any country to Lebanon.")

July 22-Lebanese Druze leader Jumblatt announced the establishment of a "central political council”'—a civil administration to govern those sections of Lebanon controlled by the Muslim Leftist Alliance. (The move was seen as a step toward partition of Lebanon.)

July 22-A Palestinian delegation met with Syrian Foreign Minister Khaddam and senior members of the Ba'ath Party in Damascus to discuss ways of resolving differences stemming from Syrian intervention in the Lebanese civil war.

July 22-U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Hermann Eilts and Egyptian Minister of Economic Cooperation Zaki Shafii signed a loan agreement in Cairo for importation of American agricultural and industrial equipmentthe first of seven loan agreements to total $435 million scheduled to be signed in the near future.

July 22-The Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, quoting "senior U.S. diplomats," reported that Al Fatah second-in-command Salah Khalaf (also known as Abu Iyad) had directed the June 16 murder of U.S. Ambassador Meloy, his aide and driver, in order to provoke the United States into intervening in Lebanon with the aim of uniting the various warring factions.

July 23-The Washington Star reported that Ashland Oil, New England Petroleum, General Dynamics, and Litton Industries were negotiating a $13 billion arrangement whereby Iran would be offered a limited share of ownership in the American companies in return for use of Iranian oil to finance the purchase of U.S. jet fighters and warships. (An Ashland Oil Co. spokesman subsequently denied that part-ownership was being considered.)

July 25-Newsweek reported the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Sudan had agreed at their Jiddah summit meeting that Libyan leader Qaddafi must be ousted by whatever means were necessary.

July 26 In an interview following the conclusion of hearings on the Middle East by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, Senator McGovern stated that the United States should consider "international intervention to restore order" in Lebanon, either through the creation of a United Nations force or alongside France, Britain, and possibly the Soviet Union. July 26-It was reported that oil and shipping companies operating in the Persian Gulf had received a detailed alert from the State Department warning against the possible hijacking of an oil tanker in the region. July 27-A U.S. Navy landing craft evacuated 308 persons, including 156 Americans, from Beirut in an apparent final "organized departure" from Lebanon. (Special U.S. Ambassador Seelye and other embassy personnel boarded the craft, leaving a skeleton staff of 15, including 12 U.S. Marines, in the capital; security for the operation was provided by Palestinian and Muslim Leftist Alliance units.)

July 27-At the conclusion of 5 days of talks between Syrian and Palestinian leaders, a draft cease-fire agreement was dispatched for study by the various factions in the Lebanese civil war. (The agreement reportedly would require Palestinian forces to abide by the 1969 Cairo pact under which they promised not to interfere in the internal affairs of Lebanon in return for being permitted to maintain camps in that country; and it would preclude partition of Lebanon.)

August 1-Damascus radio reported the resignation of Syrian Prime Minister Mahmoud al-Ayoubi and the succession to that post of Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Khlefawi, who had served as Premier from 1971 to 1972. August 1-Arab demonstrators clashed with Israeli troops in Nablus in the occupied West Bank. (The demonstration and a previous commercial strike had been called to protest a newly imposed value-added tax by Israel that would raise prices of goods by 5 percent.

August 2-A report on U.S. military sales to Iran, published by the Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Assistance of the Committee on Foreign Relations, indicated that the 1972 decision by President Nixon "to sell Iran the F-14 and/or the F-15 aircraft and, in general, to let Iran buy anything it wanted effectively exempted Iran from arms sales review processes in the State and Defense Departments." (Responding to the report, the State Department denied that weapons systems were being sold to Iran without any review by U.S. officials.)

August 2-Israeli troops blocked an attempt by right-wing Jews, led by American Rabbi Meir Kahane) founder of the Jewish Defense League), to set up an unauthorized settlement near Jericho in the occupied West Bank.

August 3-Egyptian President al-Sadat said in a speech in Alexandria that Israel and Syria had conducted secret discussions in Geneva and had reached agreement giving the Damascus government a free hand in Lebanon. (Al Sadat stated that it had become clear "the Syrians are liquidating the Palestinians in a more cruel manner than the Israelis did," and that Egypt was prepared to "liberate" Israeli-held territories if peaceful negotiations failed.)

August 4 The commander of the Arab League peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Hassan Ghunaim, announced that all warring factions in the Lebanese civil war had signed a new cease-fire agreement to come into effect on August 5.

August 4-Israeli radio reported that talks between Israeli officials and breakaway units of the Lebanese army led by Lt. Ahmad Khatib had been held at the Rosh Haniqra checkpoint on the Israeli-Lebanese border in an effort to curb guerrilla attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon.

August 5-The United States completed the signing of agreements to sell nuclear reactors to Israel and Egypt. (The projected delivery of the reactors was estimated for the mid-1980's.)

August 5-The Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that large numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces were being amassed by the Soviet Union in Libya; that Mig-25 jet aircraft were being flown on reconnaissance missions by Soviet pilots from airfields near Tripoli; and that the Soviet Mediterranean fleet was using Libyan port facilities.

August 7-In Iran, Secretary Kissinger defended the U.S. arms sales program to that country, stating that the transactions were "not a favor to Iran," but "in the interest of the United States" in supplying arms to an ally against "potential threats" from its neighbors.

August 8-Secretary Kissinger and Iranian Economic Affairs Minister Hushang Ansari signed an economic agreement that is expected to lead to $40 billion in trade between the United States and Iran during the 1975-80 period. (The figure did not include U.S. arms sales to Iran which were expected to be between $2 and $3 billion per year.)

August 11-Four persons were killed, including staff aide to Senator Javits, Harold Rosenthal, and more than 30 injured when Palestinian terrorists shot up and bombed an Istanbul international airport building after having failed to hijack an Israeli El Al airliner.

August 11-The Defense Department notified Congress that it intends to sell to Iran almost $315 million of artillery ammunition and support items for previously purchased F-5 jet aircraft.

August 12-After 54 days of seige, Lebanese Christian forces finally captured the fortified Palestinian Tal Zaatar refugee camp near Beirut. August 13-The Syrian Ministry of the Interior annouced in Damascus that "in view of current security circumstances in Lebanon, and to safeguard the convenience of Lebanese and Syrian citizens," the Government had issued instructions regulating travel and movement between the two countries thus restricting for the first time since the Lebanese civil war began travel across the Syrian border.

August 13-The Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram reported that Egypt had moved troops, armor, and weapons westward to protect its border with Libya and to prevent infiltration by saboteurs.

August 14-At least seven persons were killed and several injured in Alexandria when a bomb exploded in a train being boarded by farmers and workers bound for Aswan.

August 14-Arab Foreign Ministers attending the fifth nonalined summit conference in Sri Lanka rejected a PLO proposal calling for the immediate expulsion of Israel from the United Nations.

August 15-The Libyan Government requested an urgent session of the Arab League Council to discuss tensions along the Libyan-Egyptian border.

August 15 Saudi Arabian Minister of Planning Hisham Nazir said in Washington that Saudi foreign assistance, currently $4 billion per year, had reached its peak and would be decreased in the future.

August 15-Israeli Minister of Justice Haim Zadok said in Washington that capital punishment for terrorists "would not serve Israel's best interests," and stressed that decisions regarding the punishment of terrorists "must be guided by cool judgment rather than by emotional reaction."

August 17—The State Department acknowledged that the Soviet Union had complained to the administration over the interception by Israeli naval patrols of supplies bound for Palestinian and leftist forces in Lebanon. (In Tel Aviv, Israeli Defense Minister Peres said that six ships had been halted off the Lebanese coast but stated "there is no blockade" of Lebanon by Israel.)

August 18-Israeli radio announced that Israel had protested to the U.N. peacekeeping force, accusing Egypt of having moved 16 to 18 battalions to the east bank of the Suez Canal instead of the 8 permitted by the Sinai interim_agreement of September 1975. (Israeli defense officials said that the Egyptians also had placed missile batteries and helicopters in restricted areas, but these had been withdrawn in July following Israeli complaints.)

August 18-The Baltimore Sun reported that Israeli arms exports were expected to reach more than $300 million in 1976, with sales to "generally non-alined" countries, including Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Singapore, Austria, and South Africa.

August 19-Uganda radio announced that President Amin had cabled Israeli Prime Minister Rabin requesting compensation for the loss of lives and property during the July 4 rescue of hostages at Entebbe Airport, as well as for the "hospitality for the hostages" given by Uganda. August 21-Finance Ministers of Egypt and four Arab oil-producing countries-Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emiratessigned an agreement establishing a $2 billion fund to help finance development in Egypt.

August 22-The State Department announced that Robert Houghton and David Mack, both Foreign Service officers, had been sent to Lebanon to confer with Lebanese officials in Christian-controlled areas. (The move was believed to indicate growing concern in Washington for a trend toward partition of Lebanon between Christians and Muslims.) August 22-Israeli Defense Minister Peres said in an interview that tensions between Israel and Syria had relaxed to such a degree that Israel may soon be able to "open the gates a little bit" to allow members of families separated by the cease-fire line to visit each other. (Peres said that U.N. officials were exploring the matter with the Syrian authorities, and that Israel was awaiting an announcement.)

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