Following is a chronology of the highlights of the Middle East peace negotiations begun in Madrid last fall.
Oct. 18, 1991: Secretary of State James Baker sends out invitations to a conference in Madrid that would launch direct peace negotiations involving Israel, the Arab states and the Palestinians.
Oct. 30: The peace conference opens, under the sponsorship of United States and Soviet Union, with speeches at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Israel, Syria, Lebanon and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation participate, with the European Community and the United Nations attending as observers.
Nov. 3: Israeli working groups have their first-ever direct talks with Syrian, Lebanese and joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegations. The conference adjourns with no agreement on where future sessions will take place.
Nov. 22: The United States invites the Arabs and Israelis to resume bilateral talks in Washington on Dec. 4. The invitations are issued just before Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was to discuss the venue issue at a meeting with President Bush. Angered, Israel later announces that it will show up for the talks five days late.
Dec. 9: The Israeli delegation arrives at the State Department for the bilateral talks, but the Arab delegations fail to show up.
Dec. 10: The Arab delegations show up for the second round of bilateral talks. Israel’s talks with Syria and with Lebanon get under way, but the negotiations with the Jordanians and Palestinians are stalled when the Palestinians insist on meeting the Israelis as a separate delegation. The three parties try to resolve the issue during discussions in the State Department corridors.
Dec. 18: The second round of bilateral talks adjourns with no resolution of either the venue question or the Palestinians’ demand to be treated as a separate delegation.
Jan. 12-16, 1992: The third round of bilateral talks convenes in Washington with Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians reaching agreement on meeting in separate working groups on Israeli-Jordanian issues and Israeli-Palestinian issues. The United States asks each party to list 10 cities as possible sites for future bilateral talks.
Jan. 28-29: A multilateral conference on Middle East regional issues convenes in Moscow under the sponsorship of the United States and Russia. Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians boycott the talks, but Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf states and the Maghreb states of North Africa take part, as do 18 European nations, Turkey, Canada, Japan and China, which has just established diplomatic ties with Israel. Five working groups on various issues are set up and meet for the first time. They are to reconvene in May.
Feb. 24-March 4: The fourth round of bilateral talks convenes in Washington. There is much acrimony, but the Israeli and Jordanian-Palestinian delegations begin discussing an interim self-government arrangement for the Palestinians in the administered territories.
April 21: The State Department announces that Rome will be the site of the sixth round of bilateral talks, set to take place sometime after the Israeli elections on June 23.
April 27: The fifth round of bilateral talks opens in Washington.
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