29 May 11
US president Barack Obama in a speech celebrated the Arab Spring and promised financial aid to those transition countries seeking to build a democracy. But he annoyed Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by stating that Israel’s border with Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with swaps.
NATO ramped up its air attacks on Tripoli, capital of Libya, and deployed Apache attack helicopters.
Prosecutors in Egypt announced that former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons would be tried on a series of chargers including murder.
Scores of Yemenis were killed in clashes with security forces as President Ali Abdullah Saleh continued to reject a deal which would require him to leave office within 30 days.
21 May 11
At least 14 Palestinians were shot when they sought to cross Israel’s border with Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. The demonstrators were marking the day of naqba, the term Palestinians use for Israel’s birth in 1948.
Shokri Ghanem, oil minister of Libya, was reported to have defected. He is the highest-ranking official to abandon Colonel Qaddafi since the foreign minister fled in March.
Yemen’s government and an opposition coalition came close to striking a deal that would end the three-month long crisis. Under the plan, brokered by the GCC, President Saleh would step down within 30 days and a unity government would be formed.
Nabil el-Araby, Egypt’s foreign minister, was elected secretary-general of the Arab League, thereby replacing his fellow countryman Amr Moussa.
17 May 11
The Syrian government held talks with several veteran dissidents, while security forces continued to fire on protesters in Homs, Syria’s third-most-populous city. Scores of protesters were killed. Protests ensued in Aleppo as well.
Libyan rebels strengthened their grip on Misrata, reportedly capturing the airport. Misrata is the city closest to the capital Tripoli.
17 May 11
Syria’s government continued it’s crackdown on protests resulting in scores of deaths. More than 450 people are reported to have died since the protests started six weeks ago. There were calls from the international community to impose sanctions on Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was ordered to be moved from a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh to a military medical facility, before being taken to a prison hospital in Cairo. Mubarak and his two sons seem likely to be tried to corruption and ordering troops to fire on demonstrators shortly before his regime fell.
A deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council proposed that Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. Opposition parties have agreed to the deal, though pro-democracy protesters are not pleased that Mr. Saleh is to be granted immunity from prosecution.
Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah party, which runs the West Bank, and the Islamist movement Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, agreed to be reconciled following a bitter five-year quarrel. Under the agreement, the Palestinian factions say they will form a unity government and fix a date for elections.
The battle for Misrata, the only remaining rebel enclave in western Libya, continued. Colonel Qaddafi’s forces withdrew from the city but the rebels came under heavy fire from the leader’s artillery outside.
09 May 11
Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by US Navy SEALS in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His body was buried at sea to prevent jihadists from creating a shrine. Bin Laden was tracked down after a decade-long manhunt and found to be living a comfortable life in a villa in an urban area, nearby a military base.
Fatah and Hamas, the two biggest Palestinian parties, signed an agreement to back a government of national unity.
The government of Syria continued to crack down on protesters and political opponents. Tanks were sent into restive cities across the country. The total death tally now stands at more than 600 since the protests began.
Saif Al-Arab, one of Colonel Qaddafi’s sons, was killed in a NATO airstrike in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
25 Apr 11
A coalition of mainly Western forces continued to bomb pro-government military targets in Libya as Colonel Qaddafi’s intensified their siege of Misrata – the closest city to Tripoli that is in rebel hands. US president Barack Obama was urged by the rebels and many in the west to provide more aircraft that can attack targets with more precision.
Protests continued in Syria where the government blamed the rising violence on an “armed insurrection” by extreme Islamists. Security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in Homs, killing 15 people. President Bashar Al-Assad lifted the decades-long emergency law and promised to free political prisoners.
25 Apr 11
British and French governments criticised NATO for failing to destroy enough heavy weaponry used by Colonel Muamaar Qaddafi’s forces in Libya to enable rebels to break an ongoing stalemate.
Syria witnessed continued demonstrations with a government cracking down hard, arresting 100 people in a single day.
Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak was detained for up to 15 days for questioning about charges of corruption and abuse of office.
09 Apr 11
Fighting continued in Libya between Qaddafi’s forces and those rebelling against him. NATO took over control of the anti-Qaddafi coalition from the Americans, and continued assaults on the Libyan government’s ground forces from the air.
Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh struggled to remain in power amidst growing demonstrations in the capital and unrest across the country.
02 Apr 11
In Libya clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi escalated into a full-scale civil war. Gaddafi’s forces regained several coastal towns while Misrata, the nearest rebel-held town to Tripoli, was heavily fought over. A conference on Libya in London drew representatives of over 40 governments and international bodies to discuss the latest political, military and humanitarian plans.
Scores died in Syria as security forces suppressed anti-regime protests, particularly in Latakia and Deraa. President Bashar Assad said he would lift the 48-year-old state of emergency, but did not say when.
Following weeks of violent protests, Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to transfer his powers to a caretaker government while retaining the presidency until elections are held. Protesters declined the offer.
Sectarian relations in the Middle East soured after Nuri Al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister and a Shia himself, praised the Shia protesters in Bahrain and criticised Sunni Saudi Arabia for helping to suppress them. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia party-cum-militia, also aroused anger among Sunni governments by praising the Bahraini protesters and likening the Bahraini ruling family to Libya’s Gaddafi.
At least 55 people were killed in Tikrit, Iraq, after suicide bombers thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda to a score of hostages, including several members of the local council, prompting government forces to storm the building.
27 Mar 11
American, Britain and France attacked Libyan airfields, military centres and tanks with aircraft and missiles following a UN Security Council resolution for a no-fly zone. Rebel troops broke out of their enclave at Benghazi but struggled to advance towards Tripoli.
A bomb left at a bus stop in Jerusalem killed one British tourist and injured 30 people. It was the first such attack the city for more than six years. The bomb came after Israeli jets launched air raids in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for rockets being fired into Israel by Palestinian militants.
The death toll from the crackdown by Bahrain’s security forces rose to 18. Protesters continue to demand reform.
Three-quarters of Egyptian voters endorsed a batch of constituional amendments in a national referendum. The move paves the way for a general and presidential election in June and September respectively.
Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh promised to step down by the end of the year after snipers killed at least 50 protesters in Sana’a. Several of his closest military and tribal allies have turned against the president in recent days.