Geneva Conference

Lexicon of Terms

The opening of the Geneva Conference, 24.12.1973.

Geneva Conference

The Geneva Conference was held in December 1973. It was a multinational forum headed by the United States and the Soviet Union, and sponsored by the United Nations, as an attempted summit for peace in the Middle East. The conference was convened on the basis of the United Nations’ Security Council’s Resolution 338, which called for “negotiations (to) start between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.” Egypt and Jordan set conditions for their participation, asking for the participation of other countries as mediators so that they would not have to converse directly with Israel. Their participation was regarded in official terms as the sole means to achieve Israel’s withdrawal from the territories occupied during the Six Day War.

Israel refused to negotiate with the Syrians before they made public the list of Israeli soldiers taken as prisoners during the Yom Kippur War, and allowed the Red Cross to visit them. Syria refused to participate in the conference altogether.

The Arab countries participating had asked that France and Britain take part in the conference, but Israel and the superpowers refused. A Palestinian representation was not admitted to the opening session, but there were intentions to integrate them into later talks.

The opening session of the conference was held on December 1^st 1973. The conference was headed by Secretary General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim together with the Foreign Ministers of both superpowers. The delegations sat at separate tables, due to the Jordanian and Egyptian demand not to share one with the Israeli delegation, and a vacant table was left for the missing Syrian delegation. Opening speeches were given by representatives of the United Nations, the United States, the Soviet Union, Israel, Egypt, and Jordan and were held in the presence of the media.

Further meetings of the conference were postponed to allow Israel to carry out proper elections procedures for the Eighth Knesset (held on December 31^st). An Egyptian-Israeli military committee began meeting in Geneva on December 26^th to discuss the Separation of Forces Agreement. The continued negotiations were later mediated by American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The Geneva Conference was not resumed after December 1973, despite the urging of Arab and European countries that felt that it was the proper framework to achieve peace in the Middle East.