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Timeline of Israeli-Syrian relations

Thu Sep 6, 2007 6:46pm EDT

(Reuters) - Syria accused Israel of bombing its territory on Thursday and warned it could respond, but Israel Radio carried a denial there had been an air strike.

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The two countries are formally at war, but a ceasefire has held on the Golan front since 1974, a year after Syria launched a war that failed to regain the plateau.

Here is a short timeline on Israel-Syrian relations:

November 1947 - Syria opposes U.N. General Assembly partition plan envisaging Jewish and Arab states side by side.

May 1948 - When British mandate ends, Jews proclaim state of Israel. Syria and other Arab armies invade.

July 1949 - Israel and Syria sign armistice agreement but on-and-off hostilities continue.

June 1967 - Israel launches attack on Syria, capturing Golan Heights in the Six-Day War.

October 1973 - Syria inflicts heavy losses on Israel during an attack to try to regain the Golan Heights in the Middle East War but the assault is thwarted.

1974 - After postwar clashes on the Golan Heights, Syria and Israel sign an disengagement of forces agreement.

1981 - Israel annexes the Golan Heights, a move condemned internationally, and gives its Druze Muslim occupants the option of Israeli citizenship. Most reject the offer.

June 1982 - Israel sends forces into Lebanon and eventually drives out Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organisation. Syria, the main foreign power broker in Lebanon, loses dozens of aircraft in dogfights with Israeli warplanes in eastern Lebanon.

December 1999 - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa meet for the highest-level talks between the two countries.

January 2000 - Israeli-Syrian talks on the return of most of the Golan Heights to Syria collapse over the fate of a few hundred square meters of land by the Sea of Galilee.

August 2003 - Israeli warplanes fly over the holiday residence of President Bashar al-Assad as a message to Syria to rein in the Hezbollah guerrilla group.

October 2003 - Israeli forces attack a training camp for Palestinian militants near Damascus.

January 2004 - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he is ready for peace talks with Syria, but only if Damascus halts support for "terrorist agents".

June 2006 - Israeli warplanes again fly low over one of Assad's palaces to warn Syria against supporting Palestinian militants who captured an Israeli soldier.

June 2007 - Israel says it is willing to trade land for peace with Syria and is waiting to hear whether Assad would cut ties with Iran and hostile guerrilla groups in return.

August 2007 - Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara says that it has no intention of waging war against Israel to regain the occupied Golan Heights from the Jewish state.



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