March 20:Under strong U.S. pressure, Palestinian leader Arafat appoints Mahmoud
Abbas, a long-time aide, as the first prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas accepts the post only after receiving assurances from Arafat that he will have
independent power.
April 9:U.S. marines help Iraqis pull down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein in cen-
tral Baghdad, an event widely viewed as symbolizing the fall of the Hussein’s
Baathist government.
April 30:The United States releases A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent
Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, detailing steps to be taken by
the Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their conflict. The plan had been drafted by
diplomats in mid-2002 but was withheld from formal public release until after the
Iraq invasion and the creation of a new Palestinian government.
May 1:President Bush declares an end to major combat operations in Iraq.
May 12:Four simultaneous suicide bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, target residential
compounds for foreigners, killing twenty-five people (in addition to the attackers),
including seven Americans. The Saudi government blames al-Qaida for the attacks.
May 16:More than forty people are killed in five bombings in Casablanca, Morocco.
The government blames al-Qaida for the attacks.
May 22:The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1483, recognizing the United
States and Britain as occupying powers in Iraq. The resolution also ends interna-
tional sanctions against Iraq, phases out the oil-for-food program, and allows occu-
pation forces to spend an estimated $20 billion in Iraqi oil revenues under the
United Nations’ control.
June 3:Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud
Abbas, and U.S. president George W. Bush meet in Aqaba, Jordan, and pledge to
work to implement the “road map” to peace, which was released on April 30.
July 2:Responding to an upsurge of violent attacks against the U.S. occupation in
Iraq, President Bush says, “My answer is: bring ‘em on. We’ve got the force neces-
sary to deal with the security situation.”
July 13:The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq names a twenty-five-member Iraqi Gov-
erning Council to serve as its local liaison.
July 22:Saddam Hussein’s two sons, Qusay and Uday, are killed in a firefight with
U.S. forces in Mosul, Iraq.
August 13:Libya accepts an agreement, brokered by Britain and the United States,
under which it accepts responsibility for the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libya will pay $2.7 billion into a fund to com-
pensate the victims’ families.
August 19:A truck bomb destroys the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing twenty-
three people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the UN delegation in
Iraq. The bombing will come to be viewed as the beginning of an escalation of
opposition to the U.S. occupation by Iraqi Sunnis.
August 29:A bomb destroys the historic Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, Iraq, killing
dozens of people, notably Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, a leading Shiite cleric and
political leader who had advocated cooperation with the U.S. occupation.
September 10:After less than six months in office, Palestinian prime minister Abbas
resigns, stating that Arafat had not given him enough independence. Arafat names
Ahmad Qurei, speaker of the Palestinian legislature, to succeed Abbas.
690 CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 1914–2007