years, and then Likud leader (and former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir) will take
over for two years.
September 25:Jordan becomes the first Arab country to renew diplomatic relations
with Egypt.
1985
February 22:Jordan’s King Hussein and PLO leader Arafat announce their agreement
on the Amman Accord, a peace plan calling for a Jordanian-Palestinian “confeder-
ation.” Israel rejects the plan.
March:Iran and Iraq escalate bomb and missile attacks against each other’s cities. This
“war of the cities,” which began in February 1984, will continue intermittently until
the Iran-Iraq War ends in 1988.
March:Under a plan announced in January, Israel begins withdrawing from most of
Lebanon except for a self-declared “security zone” in southern Lebanon.
June 14:TWA Flight 847, from Athens to Rome, is hijacked and forced to land
in Beirut. After prolonged negotiations, the last of the passengers will be released
on June 30.
October 1:After the killing of three Israelis by Palestinians in Cyprus in late Septem-
ber, Israel bombs PLO headquarters in Tunis. More than seventy people die from
the bombing, which brings widespread criticism.
October 7:Four Palestinian gunmen hijack the Achille Lauro,an Italian cruise ship, in
the Mediterranean. They will kill an American, Leon Klinghoffer, before surren-
dering and releasing other hostages. The hijackers are said to be associated with the
Palestine Liberation Front, headed by Abul Abbas.
November 7:PLO chairman Arafat renounces the use of terrorism.
December 27:At the Rome and Vienna airports, Palestinians from Fatah–Revolutionary
Council, headed by Abu Nidal, attack travelers at check-in counters for El Al, the
Israeli airline. Eighteen people are killed, plus four of the gunmen.
1986
January 7:The United States imposes economic and trade sanctions against Libya,
accusing it of supporting Abu Nidal’s Palestinian faction.
February 11:Iran captures the Faw Peninsula in Iraq, including the oil-export termi-
nal there, marking the beginning of an unsuccessful Iranian drive to capture Basra
and other cities in southern Iraq.
February 17:Lebanese guerrillas capture two Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Lebanon
border.
February 19:Jordan’s King Hussein renounces the Amman Accord he reached one year
earlier with PLO chairman Arafat, charging the Palestinian leader with failing to
cooperate in carrying out the agreement, specifically his ongoing refusal to accept
UN Resolution 242. Jordan closes PLO offices in the country.
April 14:The United States carries out an air attack against Libya, killing some fif-
teen people, including an infant daughter of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi.
President Reagan had accused Libya of sponsoring the April 5 bombing of a Berlin
discotheque in which a U.S. soldier and a woman from Turkey died.
May 4:Muhammad Najibullah, a former chief of the secret police, replaces Babrak
Karmal as president of Afghanistan.
672 CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 1914–2007