April 18:More than 230 people are killed, or found dead, from violence in Iraq. More
than 180 of the deaths occur in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad as the result of
four bombings.
April 27:The Turkish military declares its objections to plans by the openly Islamist
Justice and Development Party to appoint Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as the
next president. Gul will eventually withdraw his candidacy, but the military’s inter-
vention, as the self-declared defenders of secularism, sparks a political crisis result-
ing in early elections in July.
April 30:A fact-finding panel in Israel issues a preliminary report blaming top gov-
ernment officials—including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir
Peretz, and former army chief of staff Dan Halutz—for failures during the war with
Hizballah in July–August 2006.
May 1:President Bush vetoes a bill sent to him by Congress establishing a deadline
for the start of U.S. withdrawals from Iraq. Congress on May 24 will send Bush
another bill funding U.S. military operations in Iraq but without the deadline he
had opposed.
May 3:U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice meets with Syrian foreign minister
Walid al-Moallem during a regional conference in Egypt and asks him to prevent
foreign fighters from crossing the border into Iraq. It is the highest-level meeting
between U.S. and Syrian officials in nearly four years.
May 20:Fighting breaks out in Lebanon between the army and Fatah al-Islam, an
Islamist guerrilla group that has taken up positions in a Palestinian refugee camp
outside Tripoli.
May 28:The U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq—Ryan Crocker and Hassan
Kazemi Qumi, respectively—meet at the office of Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-
Maliki to discuss ways of improving security in Iraq. It is a rare diplomatic exchange
between the two countries, which have not had formal diplomatic relations since
1980.
May 30:The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1757, creating a special tribu-
nal to prosecute those responsible for the killing of former Lebanese prime minis-
ter Rafiq Hariri in February 2005.
June 13:After five days of violence between supporters of Fatah and Hamas in the
Gaza Strip, Hamas prevails and gains effective control over the territory. Fatah con-
tinues to control the West Bank.
June 13:Iraqi insurgents attack the Golden Dome shrine in Samarra, which had been
largely destroyed by a bombing in February 2006. The mosque’s two remaining
minarets fall in this latest attack.
The Israeli Labor Party elects former prime minister Ehud Barak as its leader,
replacing Amir Peretz, whose service as defense minister in the coalition govern-
ment had been widely criticized. Barak will take over from Peretz as defense min-
ister on June 19. The Knesset elects Shimon Peres as Israel’s president. He suc-
ceeds Moshe Katsav, who had been on a leave of absence because of charges of
sexual improprieties.
June 15:Palestinian president Abbas swears in an “emergency” government of tech-
nocrats, all of whom are independents or belong to Fatah. The preceding day he
had dissolved the Palestinian Authority government headed by Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
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