September 19:After a Palestinian suicide bomber kills five people in Tel Aviv, Israel
launches a new military operation in Ramallah that destroys nearly all of the Pales-
tinian Authority compound. Palestinian leader Arafat and others remain holed up
in the only building not totally destroyed.
September 29:Under strong international pressure, the Israeli army withdraws from
the area of the Palestinian Authority compound, but Israel continues to bar Arafat
from leaving Ramallah.
October 7:In a nationally televised speech to build public support for a war against
Iraq, President Bush warns that Iraq poses a direct threat to the United States
because of its weapons programs and collaboration with terrorist groups.
October 11:The U.S. Congress adopts a resolution authorizing the president to use
force against Iraq.
November 3:Voters in Turkey hand an overwhelming victory to the Justice and De-
velopment Party (AKP), making it the first avowedly Islamist party to control the
parliament.
November 8:In a unanimous vote, the UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1441,
demanding that Iraq cooperate with UN weapons inspections. The resolution warns
Iraq of unspecified “serious consequences” should it refuse to do so.
November 26:UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq for the first time since they were
withdrawn in December 1998.
December 8:Iraq gives UN inspectors thousands of pages of documents allegedly show-
ing that it does not have illegal weapons of mass destruction.
December 14:Iraqi opposition groups begin a four-day meeting in London to plan for
a new government in Baghdad based on the expectation that the United States will
force Saddam Hussein from power.
December 20:The United States accuses Iraq of a “material breach” of UN Resolution
1441 by failing to provide a complete and accurate inventory of its weapons.
2003
January 5:Simultaneous suicide bombs in Tel Aviv kill twenty-three Israelis and for-
eign workers and wound more than 100 people. Israel bars Palestinian officials from
attending a conference in London on Palestinian government reform and possible
peace overtures.
January 27:UN weapons inspection chief Hans Blix faults Iraq for failing to cooper-
ate, telling the Security Council that “Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine
acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it.” Blix will
issue subsequent reports on February 14 and March 7, his last before the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq.
February 24:Britain, Spain, and the United States submit a draft resolution to the Secu-
rity Council asserting that Iraq “has failed” to meet the demands of Resolution 1441.
France and Russia block action, and the resolution never comes to a formal vote.
March 17:President Bush sets a forty-eight-hour deadline for Iraqi leader Saddam Hus-
sein and his two sons to leave the country or face an invasion. Addressing the people
of Iraq, Bush says: “The tyrant will soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near.”
March 19 (U.S. time; March 20 local time):The United States, Britain, and their allies
begin air strikes against Iraq; this will be followed shortly by a ground invasion
launched primarily from Kuwait.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 1914–2007 689