January 1200 to 1948 - Palestine an Arab country exists as part of the Islamic World, after War World II, Palestine is under British control.

November 1947 - Syria opposes a General Assembly partition plan dividing Palestine into two states - Jewish and Arab.

May 1948 - When British mandate ends, Jews proclaim state of Israel. Syria and other Arab armies invade, in July 1949, under British influence both parties sign armistice agreement but hostilities continue off and on.

June 1967 - Israel attacks and captures strategic Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War.

November 1967 - U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 242 calling for Israel to pull out of occupied lands and for recognition of all states under the formula of ``land for peace.''

October 1973 - Syria joins Egypt in surprise war on Israel. Syrians penetrate deep into Golan before being pushed back by Israeli troops.

May 1974 - Israel-Syria disengagement agreement reached through mediation of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. U.N. observer force positioned in buffer zone from then on.

December 1981 - Israeli parliament imposes Israeli law on Golan Heights.

June 1982 - Israel invades Lebanon with avowed aim of halting Palestinian guerrilla attacks, withdraws bulk of its forces in 1985 but with allies patrols a border security zone.

November 1990 - Syrian tanks rumble into Saudi Arabia, dispelling doubts about commitment by Damascus to the U.S.-led multinational coalition arrayed against Iraq for invading Kuwait.

October 1991 - Syria joins Jordan, Lebanon and Palestinians at ground breaking U.S.-brokered Madrid peace conference with Israel.

July 1992 - Having defeated Yitzhak Shamir's hardline Likud party in elections, Labour Party leader Yitzhak Rabin becomes Israeli prime minister vowing to accelerate peace moves with Arabs.

Palestinians reach interim peace deals with Israel in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Jordan signs treaty with Israel in 1994. Syria and ally Lebanon fail to clinch accords in slow-moving talks.

1995

June - Damascus refuses to resume talks on security arrangements unless Israel drops demand for early-warning stations on Golan in any handover to Syria.

November 4 - A right-wing Jew opposed to land-for-peace deals with Arabs shoots dead Rabin at a rally in Tel Aviv. Shimon Peres succeeds Rabin and promises to uphold his peace legacy.

December 16 - On a Middle East mission, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher meets Assad in Syria and Peres in Israel. All agree to send negotiators to talks deadlocked since June.

December 27: Israel, Syria resume peace talks in Maryland.

1996

March - After a series of four suicide bombings by Palestinian Islamic militants, in which a total of 59 people die, Israel withdraws its team from negotiations with Syria.

April - The United States says Israel, Syria and Lebanon agree to resume peace talks ``as soon as possible'' in a written but unsigned ceasefire document ending 16 days of fighting between Israeli forces and Hizbollah guerrillas on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

May 29 - Right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu narrowly defeats Peres in Israeli elections on a hardline platform averse to land-for-peace deals.

July - U.S. President Bill Clinton's Middle East envoy Dennis Ross makes a peace trip to Damascus in a failed bid to revive Israeli-Syrian talks.

1999

May 17 - Labour leader Ehud Barak, a former army chief of staff and ex-negotiator with Syria, beats Netanyahu by a landslide in Israeli elections

June 23 - Syria's President Assad heaps unexpected praise on Barak in newspaper interview with Assad's British biographer. Assad calls Barak ``a strong and honest man'' who wants peace with Syria.

July 6 - Barak takes office and pledges to work to advance peace with Syria and to withdraw Israeli occupation forces from south Lebanon within one year

July 14 - Netanyahu reveals that he had secret contacts with Assad during his three years in office, marked by no formal negotiations with Syria. Netanyahu says no deal was struck because he refused to accept Syrian terms for a full withdrawal from the Golan.

December 7 - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says after meeting Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Damascus she is optimistic about restarting the talks stalled since March 1996.

December 8 - Albright meets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Jerusalem and says she has ``a sense that there is a desire to seize the moment.''

December 15, - US President Bill Clinton announces in Washington that Israel and Syria have agreed to resume peace talks.