1870: John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil, whose reach and power would extend to the Middle East by the middle of the following century.
1946: The United Nations General Assembly, formed of 51 nations and representing four-fifth of the world’s population, meets for the first time in the Central Hall of Westminster in London. Egypt is the only Middle Eastern nation on the 11-nation Security Council.
1956: In an effort to bolster the regime of Jordan’s King Hussein, where anti-Western rioting is undermining the throne, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden orders 1,600 paratroopers to Cyprus, where they would be ready to fly to Jordan, Saudi Arabia or other trouble spots in the Middle East to quell uprisings. Britain already has 12,000 troops stationed in Cyprus, where they’re used to crush Cypriote nationalists seeking union with Greece.
1970: The Federated Organization of Arab-American Relations, a group calling for the creation of an independent Palestine on the West Bank, meets in closed session at New York’s Statler Hilton Hotel to map out a 10year strategy. The meeting is significant in one regard, even though the federation did not survive long: The plan and the approach the federation was proposing is virtually indistinguishable from subsequent plans that have been seeking a solution, regardless of the camp proposing them. “The question of Palestine will not be solved without a change in American policy,” M.T. Mehdi, executive secretary of the federation, tells The New York Times. “We are mapping out a plan for 10 years because the matter will not be settled before then. We want a movement to counterbalance the Zionists and work for peace in the Middle East.”
1972: Breaking an 11-month lull in bombings, Israel air-raids two villages in south Lebanon, Bint Jbeil and Chaman, ostensibly to retaliate against Palestinian guerillas who’d shelled Israeli border positions.
1987: Iran claims significant advances toward the southern Iraqi city of Basra since the launch of the latest offensive in the Iran-Iraq war, by then in its seventh year. Iraq contradicts the reports, predicting a huge defeat for Iran.
