The Geneva Conference, 1973

The challenge

The 1973 war ended with the armies tangled together. Israeli forces had crossed the Suez Canal on 16 October, and fighting went on after the first ceasefire. On 25 October the United States put its nuclear forces on alert, after a Soviet threat to act alone.¹

Resolution 338 of 22 October called for talks between the parties, under appropriate auspices, to begin with the ceasefire.² Geneva was meant to be those auspices. By then Israeli and Egyptian generals were already talking face to face at Kilometre 101, on the road to Cairo.³

The road there

1. 22 October 1973The Security Council adopts Resolution 338: a ceasefire, implementation of Resolution 242 and negotiations.²¹
2. 11 November 1973At Kilometre 101 Israel and Egypt sign a six-point agreement on keeping the ceasefire, supplies and prisoners. It is their first signed agreement since 1949.³
3. 21 December 1973The UN Secretary-General opens the conference. Speaking for their governments are Andrei Gromyko, Kissinger, Ismail Fahmy, Zeid al-Rifai and Abba Eban.⁴⁵
4. 22 December 1973In a closed session the conference agrees to continue in a military working group.⁴
5. 18 January 1974After about a week of Kissinger's shuttling between Aswan and Jerusalem, Israel and Egypt reach the disengagement agreement.⁶
6. 31 May 1974Israel and Syria sign a disengagement agreement, after almost a month of talks through Kissinger.⁶

The people

Negotiated

Ismail Fahmy

Mediated

Henry Kissinger

What came out of it

• No agreement was reached.⁵
• The work would go on in a military working group, which would start with the separation of forces.⁴
• The conference would continue at ambassador level, and the foreign ministers would return to Geneva when needed.⁴

Read the document

The geography

The hard decisions

• Syria chose not to come. According to the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), this was linked to Israel's refusal to accept the PLO as the Palestinians' representative.⁵
• The Palestinians had no seat: the UN report lists five governments only.⁴ The PLO, for its part, rejected the whole framework. In June 1974 the Palestinian National Council decided not to deal with Resolution 242 at any level, Geneva included.⁷

What remains open

• Geneva offered one table under the UN and both superpowers. In practice the sides moved forward in small, separate steps, with American mediation.⁶
• Palestinian representation, left open at Geneva, came back at the Madrid conference in 1991. On how the PLO's position changed in between, see the PLO's road.

Photos, videos and quotes

1973Watch here: Golda Meir at a Washington news conference, November 1973

Golda Meir at a Washington news conference, November 1973

2 November 1973 · AP Archive

On 11 November 1973 Israeli and Egyptian officers signed the six-point agreement at Kilometre 101, the first document the two had signed since 1949.

1973Watch here: Kissinger with Golda Meir in Jerusalem, on the eve of Geneva

Kissinger with Golda Meir in Jerusalem, on the eve of Geneva

17 December 1973 · AP Archive

Four days later, on 21 December, the Geneva peace conference opened: the first time Israel and Arab states sat together at a formal conference.