Chronology • 4631994 PLO-Israel talks over terms for troop withdrawals, elections,
and Jewish settlements in occupied lands; Arafat returns to
Gaza; Jordan and Israel sign peace treaty; US seeks Syrian-
Israeli treaty; other Arab states seek peace accords despite
Islamist opposition
1995 PLO and Israel reach new agreement on phased Israeli troop
withdrawals; Israeli extremist assassinates Rabin; Islamist party
wins plurality in Turkish elections and forms government
1996 Elections held for Palestinian Authority in West Bank and Gaza;
close Israeli elections restore Likud to power and Benjamin
Netanyahu becomes prime minister; Israel-PLO peace talks stall
over Jewish settlements, Jerusalem tunnel, and control over
terrorism; Iraqi troops invade Kurdistan, setting off US
reprisals; Taliban take over most of Afghanistan
1997 Israel cedes control over most of Hebron; Turkish officers
demand end to Islamist government; Iraq tries to bar UN arms
inspectors from key sites, inviting confrontation with US;
Iranians elect Khatami president; terrorist attacks in Jerusalem
and Luxor chill peace efforts
1998 Iraq's government continues to impede UN inspections for
weapons of mass destruction, despite mediation of UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan; inspectors quit Iraq as US and
Britain resume aerial bombardment
1999 Israelis vote Likud out of office, as Ehud Barak forms Labor
coalition with small parties in Knesset; Husayn dies and is
succeeded by Abdallah II as king of Jordan; severe earthquake
in Turkey2000 Hafiz al-Asad dies and is succeeded by his son, Bashar, as
president of Syria; Israeli-Palestinian negotiations lead to
Camp David summit, where Ehud Barak and Yasir Arafat fail
to reach final peace settlement; Ariel Sharon's visit to
Temple Mount sparks new Palestinian uprising, called the
al-Aqsa Intifada
2001 Ariel Sharon elected prime minister of Israel; Fighting
intensifies between Israelis and Palestinians; Khatami reelected
as Iran's president, but Muslim conservatives continue to
control its judiciary and police; Islamist militants hijack four
American passenger jets and fly two of them into World Trade
Center and another into the Pentagon, killing 2,750; US leads
coalition invading Afghanistan to overthrow Taliban regime and