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1992

Saddam Meeting with Yasser Arafat, as well as Discussions about the Future of the Arab League

This audio file contains: A meeting between Saddam Hussein and other high ranking personnel.  They discussed the U.S.‐Israel relationship and Yasser Arafat's peace initiative; the 1967 war with Israel; the roles of NATO and the Warsaw Pact; America's oil needs; Jewish immigration to Israel; the end of the Cold War and the international system; the 1956 war against Egypt; a comparison between Iraqi and Israeli military capabilities.

August 30, 1994

The Chancellor's [Helmut Kohl's] Meeting with King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan on 29 August 1994 at the Chancellor’s Office, 16.30 hours until 17.50 hours

Kohl and King Hussein look into the situation in the Middle East and in Northern Africa. They focus on on the situation in the individual countries of the Middle East, the perspectives of the peace process in the region and the bilateral relationship between Germany and Jordan.

March 31, 1993

The Chancellor's [Helmut Kohl's] Meeting with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in Bonn on 30 March 1993, 15.30-17.20 hours

Kohl and Mubarak discuss the recent bomb attack in Cairo and the question of the assassins. Upon Kohl's question, Mubarak rejects the idea that Libya and Gaddafi could be behind it. Rather, Mubarak suggests the changes in Gaddafi’s position and the latter's concern about fundamentalist terror in Libya. Mubarak thinks Iran was behind the terror attack in Cairo.

March 11, 1993

The Chancellor's [Helmut Kohl's] Meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Peres on Wednesday, 10 March 1993

Kohl and Peres examine the state of the Middle East peace process and chances for closer cooperation between Israel and the European Community.

September 14, 1992

The Chancellor's [Helmut Kohl's] Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin on Monday, 14 September 1992

Kohl and Rabin discuss the situation in the Near and Middle East and the changed in Syria's position toward Israel after the demise of the Soviet Union. Rabin expresses concern about the continued arms race in the region and Syria's purchases of Scud missiles from Russia and Slovakia. He also reiterates Iraq's continued capability to go nuclear within 5 to 6 years despite international arms control inspections. Last but not least, Kohl and Rabin discuss the situation in Iran and Kohl's contacts with President Rafsandjani.

October 18, 1991

The Chancellor's [Helmut Kohl's] Meeting with Egypt’s President Mubarak on Thursday, 17 October 1991, 11:00 – 14:00 hours

Kohl and Mubarak discuss the overall situation in the Midle East after the Gulf War. Mubarak shares his insights examining the positions and competing interests of Israel, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

November 13, 1974

United Nations General Assembly Official Records, 29th Session : 2282nd Plenary Meeting, Agenda Item 108, 'Question of Palestine (continued)'

As other documents in this collection on Moroccan nationalists in 1947 and 1950 have exemplified, the United Nations was an important arena in decolonization struggles for Arabs, as it was for Asians and Africans as e.g. Alanna O’Malley’s The Diplomacy of Decolonisation: America, Britain, and the United Nations during the Congo crisis, 1960-1964 (2018) has shown. In this regard, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded in 1964 and taken over by the Fatah movement in 1969, was no exception.

To be sure, Palestinian organizations including Fatah and the PLO decried key UN actions. One was the UN Palestine partition plan of 1947; another was UN Security Council resolution 242 of November 1967. Calling upon Israel to withdraw “from territories occupied” during the Six-Day War in June and calling for the “acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace,” it did not mention Palestine or the Palestinians. Even so, the PLO sought to get access to the UN and UN recognition. A crucial landmark on this road was the address to the UN in New York in November 1974 by Yassir Arafat (1929-2004), a Fatah co-founder in 1959 and from 1969 PLO chairman.

Arafat did not speak at the Security Council, which was and is dominated by its five veto-carrying permanent members Britain, China, France, the United States, and the USSR/Russia. Rather, he addressed the UN General Assembly (UNGA), where from the 1960s Third World states were in the majority; his speech was the first time that the UNGA allowed a non-state representative to attend its plenary session. The UNGA invited the PLO after having decided, in September, to begin separate hearings on Palestine (rather than making Palestine part of general Middle Eastern hearings), and after the PLO was internationally recognized as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, a landmark accomplishment for the organization. The UNGA president who introduced Arafat, Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1937-2021), was the Foreign Minister of Algeria, which since its independence in 1962 had supported the Palestinian cause organizationally, militarily, and politically. Arafat spoke in Arabic; the below text is the official UN English translation. Arafat did not write the text all by himself; several PLO officials and Palestinians close to the PLO, including Edward Said, assisted, as Timothy Brennan has noted in Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said (2021). Later in November 1974, the UNGA inter alia decided to give the PLO observer status and affirmed Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

July 26, 1985

[Draft] Letter, Shintaro Abe, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, to George P. Shultz, Secretary of State

In a letter to Secretary of State Schultz, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Abe describes his visits with various countries in the Middle East after the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference with Dialogue Partners. He discusses the Iran-Iraq conflict, the American hostages held in Lebanon, and the general issue of peace in the Middle East.

November 7, 1981

Lt. Ioan Plugaru, No. PI/00124, 'Report regarding the Intelligence obtained by Contacting ‘ALBU’, Foreigner'

Report on Palestinian feeling about the death of Sadat and Romania sending a representative to the funeral. The report also describes tensions and the need for Yasser Arafat to deal with them.

May 25, 1981

No. 0620/D/003105/25.05.1981, 'Memo [about a Meeting between Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Students]'

Memo about Yasser Arafat's meeting with Palestinian students.

Pagination