Middle East Contemporary Survey

This volume covers the year 1993, a period marked by growing polarization in the conflict between radical Islamist movements and the region's states, as well as by a dramatic breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Radical groups, supported by Islamist governments in Iran and Sudan, increased their terrorist attacks on Egyptian, Algerian, and Saudi Arabian governments and violently opposed the peace process in Israel and the occupied territories. Arab states responded with increased repression, producing tension and instability.A more positive development was the historic signing by Israel and the PLO of a formal Declaration of Principles, which prompted the conclusion of an Israeli-Jordanian agenda for peace that would lead to a treaty in 1994. It also created opportunities for an enhanced U.S. role in the peace process, especially in promoting an Israeli-Syrian treaty, which nonetheless went unsigned in 1993.