The London Agreement between

King Hussein Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family o ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and

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 Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres was signed during a secret meeting held at the residence of Lord Mishcon in

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on April 11, 1987. Also present in the meeting were Jordanian Prime Minister

Zaid al-Rifai Zaid al-Rifai ( ar, زيد الرفاعي) (born 27 November 1936 in Amman, Jordan) is a Jordanian politician that served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Jordan from April 1984 to April 1989. Biography He served as Prime Minister of Jordan and ...

and Director General of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry,

Yossi Beilin Yosef "Yossi" Beilin ( he, יוסף "יוסי" ביילין, born 12 June 1948) is an Israeli politician who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government. Much of his political career was in the Labour Pa ...

Overview

The agreement outlined the framework for an international peace conference hosted by the

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, whose purpose would be "the peaceful solution of the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...

based on resolutions

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and 338 and a peaceful solution of the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

problem in all its aspects."''The Peres-Hussein London Agreement, 11 April 1987'', section C, quoted in Shimon Peres, ''Battling for Peace: Memoirs'', Orion Books, 1995, p. 423 The agreement also stipulated that the conference would not impose a solution on the parties, and that the Palestinians would be represented by the Jordanian delegation. Its requirements that all parties accept

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Resolutions 242 and 338 as well as renounce violence and terrorism effectively excluded PLO participation. The signatories agreed that their plan would be presented to

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George Shultz for its promotion as an American initiative. Peres, serving as the Foreign Affairs Minister on behalf of the Labor Party in the Israeli

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, left for the meeting with the approval of Prime Minister

Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir ( he, יצחק שמיר, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment ...

of the

Likud Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sha ...

. He was hoping the meeting would lead to a breakthrough allowing the promotion of the "Jordanian Option", namely the resolution of the Palestinian issue through Jordanian sovereignty over the entirety or most of the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Shamir, however, was unenthusiastic about the Jordanian Option and feared that an international conference would force an undesirable solution on Israel. Peres informed him of the agreement on his return to Israel but refused to provide Shamir with a copy and continued to promote it independently. Mistrust between both leaders as well as ideological differences led to Shamir's rejection of the agreement, and subsequently to Peres's failure to approve it in the Israeli cabinet in May. At the same time, Shamir sent

Moshe Arens Moshe Arens (27 December 1925 – 7 January 2019) was an Israeli aeronautical engineer, researcher, diplomat and Likud politician. A member of the Knesset between 1973 and 1992 and again from 1999 until 2003, he served as Minister of Defense thre ...

to meet with Shultz and block the peace conference. Hussein was bitterly disappointed by Peres' inability to implement the agreement, and consequently disengaged from any further initiative to promote a solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict. Following the start of the First Intifada in December 1987, the Jordanian Option became effectively irrelevant, and in July 1988 Hussein announced that Jordan had relinquished any claim to sovereignty over the

. An international peace conference between Israel and the Arab countries was eventually held in

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in October 1991, adhering to a framework similar to that agreed by Peres and Hussein in 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peres-Hussein London Agreement Israeli–Palestinian peace process Arab–Israeli peace process 1987 in Israel 1987 in Jordan Treaties of Israel Treaties of Jordan Treaties concluded in 1987 Israel–Jordan relations Hussein of Jordan April 1987 events in the United Kingdom Shimon Peres