The Islamic Group says the attack is in retaliation for the U.S. imprisonment of
the group’s founder, Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman, who was convicted on charges
related to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
December 14:Iranian president Khatami says in his first news conference that he hopes
for a “thoughtful dialogue with the American people.”
1998
January 7:In an interview with CNN, Iranian president Mohammad Khatami pro-
poses a “dialogue between civilizations and cultures” involving Iran and the United
States, citing for example exchanges of scholars, journalists, and others.
January 16:Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, says Iran will not engage
in any dialogue with the U.S. government, but praises Khatami’s offer of a dialogue
with the American people. Turkey’s Constitutional Court bans the Welfare Party
of former prime minister Erbakan. Many party members will later form the Virtue
Party.
February 20:The previous limit of $2 billion worth of oil that Iraq can sell every six
months is increased by the UN Security Council to $5.2 billion.
February 23:UN secretary-general Kofi Annan brokers a compromise to allow UN
weapons inspectors to visit so-called presidential sites in Iraq, including some palaces
of President Saddam Hussein. The government previously had barred the inspec-
tors from them.
June 17:U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright calls for the United States and Iran
to develop a “road map leading to normal relations.” Weeks later, on July 1, Iran-
ian president Khatami will praise the “tone” of Albright’s remarks but add that Iran
wants to see more positive action by the United States.
August 7:The U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are
destroyed by powerful car bombs, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people,
most of them Africans. The United States blames al-Qaida.
August 20:The United States fires missiles at an alleged al-Qaida training camp in
Khost, Afghanistan, and at a plant in Khartoum, Sudan, alleged to produce chem-
ical weapons. Subsequent evidence suggests that the plant in Khartoum made phar-
maceuticals, not chemical weapons.
September 17:The United States says it has brokered a peace agreement between the
two main Kurdish political factions in Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Under the deal, the two parties will share power
in the northern provinces of Iraq that they call Kurdistan. A cease-fire in October
1996 had failed to end the conflict.
October 23:At the White House, PLO chairman Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime min-
ister Binyamin Netanyahu sign the Wye River Memorandum, pledging to carry out
several delayed steps in the peace process. Provisions include Israel’s phased with-
drawal from 13 percent of the West Bank and a pledge by the Palestinians to arrest
suspects wanted by Israel and to remove anti-Israeli statements from the PLO
charter.
October 31:President Bill Clinton signs the Iraq Liberation Act (PL 105-338), calling
for the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power and pledging support
for Iraqi opposition groups. Iraq announces that it is ending all cooperation with
UN weapons inspectors.
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