Tripartite Declaration Of 1950
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Tripartite Declaration of 1950, also called the Tripartite Agreement of 1950, was a joint statement by the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
to guarantee the territorial ''status quo'' that had been determined by the 1949
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i Armistice Agreements. Developed from discussions related to the armistice, the declaration outlined the parties' commitment to peace and stability in the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
and their opposition to the use or the threat of force. They pledged to take action within and outside the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
to prevent violations of the frontiers or armistice lines. Further, they reiterated their opposition to the development of an arms race.A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Background to the 1956 War, p. 123 The declaration also stipulated close consultation among the three powers, with a view to limiting the Arab–Israeli arms race; it was issued on 25 May 1950.Gale Encyclopedia of the Mideast & N. Africa
Tripartite Declaration (1950), 2004


Motivations

The Western powers aimed to maintain stability and the free flow of oil, to neutralize the Arab–Israeli conflict, and, if possible, to convince Arabs and Israelis to make common cause with the West against the threat of Soviet encroachment. The United States was the central force behind the agreement: President
Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
viewed it as a proper instrument to ensure neutrality of the West, particularly the United States in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The ultimate purpose was to prevent any seizure in the Middle East by force.


Impact

According to Gerald M. Steinberg, the "agreement did not prevent the Arab states from obtaining weapons through their alliance relationships with suppliers, but Israel was excluded.... Little foreign aid was provided by the United States, and Israeli military officials who sought to purchase weapons and ammunition in the United States were rebuffed."


NEACC

In June 1952, the parties set up the Near East Arms Coordinating Committee (NEACC) through which they co-ordinated their arms sales to all parties in the conflict. The United States sold virtually no arms in the Middle East, leaving those markets to Britain and France, with considerable competition between the two. The NEACC functioned reasonably well for more than three years. Both Britain and France periodically withheld arms from the rivals in the Arab–Israeli dispute, primarily when states took action that threatened either British or French regional interests. The three powers recognized, however, that the Arab states and Israel needed to maintain a certain level of armed force for purposes of internal security and legitimate self-defense. They declared that they would consider arms requests in light of those principles, including requests that would permit the countries to "play their part in the defense of the area as a whole." An important but somewhat-unenforceable clause of the Tripartite Agreement also stressed that the three powers would sell arms only with an assurance that the purchasing nations would not use them for acts of aggression against other nations.


Czech arms deal affects declaration

The
Czech arms deal Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...
of September 1955 in which the Soviet Union agreed to sell Egypt $250 million worth of modern weaponry, made irrelevant Western efforts to limit the flow of arms. In April 1956, France began to transfer large quantities of modern arms to Israel. “France had been supplying Israel with arms since the early 1950s under the terms of a secret Franco-Israeli arms arrangement (in violation of the Tripartite Agreement, but with American support and encouragement)."


References


Sources

* * {{Arab–Israeli diplomacy Israeli–Palestinian conflict 1950 documents