An Introduction to Middle East Politics
Timeline
Here is a timeline of key dates and events related to this chapter.
November 1967: Opening of the Tehran Nuclear Research Centre
1968: Israel achieves nuclear weapons capacity
30 November 1971: Iran takes possession of the islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb
10 May 1973: POLISARIO Front founded
31 October 1975: Morocco occupies positions in Western Sahara
7 June 1981: Israel destroys Iraqi nuclear facility at Osiraq
1982: Hezbollah founded
June 1983: Outbreak of Second Sudanese Civil War
1984: ‘Office of Services’ established by Abdullah Azzam and Osama bin Laden to coordinate foreign Islamist fighters in Afghanistan
September 1986: Mordechai Vananu’s disclosure of Israel’s nuclear programme revealed in The Sunday Times
1989: Al-Qaeda formally established in Afghanistan
30 June 1990: Omar al-Bashir appointed President of Sudan
2 August 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait
8 August 1990: US-led ‘Operation Desert Shield’ launched
17 January 1991: ‘Operation Desert Storm’ is launched to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait
28 February 1991: Iraq unconditionally accepts UN resolutions on Kuwait invasion
1992: Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda arrive in Khartoum, Sudan
1992: Founding of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria out of members of the Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS)
August–September 1992: First postwar elections in Lebanon
29 December 1992: First ‘official’ al-Qaeda attack targeting US servicemen in Yemen
26 February 1993: Al-Qaeda associates bomb the basement of the World Trade Center, New York City
April 1996: Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon (‘Operation Grapes of Wrath’)
May 1996: Al-Qaeda expelled from Sudan, move to Taleban-ruled Afghanistan
25 June 1996: Al-Qaeda bombing of the Khobar Towers, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
8 June 1998: Bin Laden formally indicted by the US for conspiracy to attack US forces
7 August 1998: Al-Qaeda bombs US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
20 August 1998: US aerial bombing of al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan in response to the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania
1999: Founding of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in Algeria out of members of the GIA
7 July 2000: Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon
12 October 2000: Al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen
11 September 2001: Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States
20 January 2002: Machakos Protocol ends the Second Sudanese Civil War
August 2002: Information revealing Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak
2003: Al-Qaeda in Iraq founded
2003: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb founded
February 2003: Outbreak of conflict in Darfur
15–20 November 2003: Al-Qaeda bombings in central Istanbul, Turkey
14 February 2005: Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri killed in bomb-blast in central Beirut
12 July–14 August 2006: July war between Israel and Hezbollah
14 July 2008: International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued to Sudanese President Bashir for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
21 May 2008: Doha Agreement giving Hezbollah a veto over all government decision-making in Lebanon
January 2009: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula founded
12 July 2010: ICC arrest warrant issued to Sudanese President Bashir for charges of genocide
9 July 2011: South Sudan formally secedes from Sudan after January 2011 referendum