CAMP DAVID ACCORDS

Efforts to officially end the Yom Kippur War and wider conflict between Egypt and Israel finally concluded with an historic summit in the US

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When the Yom Kippur War ended with a ceasefire on 25 October 1973, negotiations for a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict were attempted shortly afterwards. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 338 that called for the ceasefire had declared "immediately and concurrently with the cease-fire, negotiations [should] start between the parties concerned under the appropriate auspices at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East".

Resolution 338 was not just referring to the immediate Yom Kippur War but a decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict that had been occurring since the state of Israel's establishment in 1948. On 21 December 1973, a conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, under the auspices of the UN secretary general with American and Soviet Union representatives acting as co-chairmen.

The foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt and Jordan attended the conference. However, Syria - which was the second party of the Arab coalition - did not send a representative. US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger worked hard to ensure that the conference concluded with a peace agreement but no final conclusion was reached. Nevertheless, Israel did sign military disengagement deals with Egypt and Syria in 1974.