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

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.