The London Agreement between

King Hussein Hussein bin Talal (14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, Hussein was traditionally considered a 40th-generati ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i Foreign Affairs Minister

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( ; ; born Szymon Perski, ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 t ...

was signed during a secret meeting held at the residence of Lord Mishcon in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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

Zaid al-Rifai Zaid al-Rifai (; 27 November 1936 – 12 August 2024) was a Jordanian politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Jordan, prime minister of Jordan, holding office from May 1973 to July 1976 and again from April 1984 to April 1989. His s ...

and Director General of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry,

Yossi Beilin Joseph "Yossi" Beilin (; 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 Party. He also served as chairman of t ...

Overview

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

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, whose purpose would be "the peaceful solution of the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is a geopolitical phenomenon involving military conflicts and a variety of disputes between Israel and many Arab world, Arab countries. It is largely rooted in the historically supportive stance of the Arab League ...

based on resolutions

242 Year 242 (Roman numerals, CCXLII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gratus and Lepidus (or, less frequently, year 995 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominatio ...

and

338 __NOTOC__ Year 338 ( CCCXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Ursus and Polemius (or, less frequently, year 1091 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

and a peaceful solution of the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

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

UNSC The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

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

US Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

George Shultz George Pratt Shultz ( ; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held f ...

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

National Unity Government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other na ...

, left for the meeting with the approval of Prime Minister

Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir (, ; 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, 1986–1992). Before the establishment of the State of Israel, ...

of the

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

. He was hoping the meeting would lead to a breakthrough allowing the promotion of the "

Jordanian Option The Jordanian option refers to a range of proposals and strategies aimed at resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through the involvement of neighboring Jordan. Historically, this concept has encompassed various ideas, including Jordan re ...

", namely the resolution of the Palestinian issue through Jordanian sovereignty over the entirety or most of the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. 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 ...

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 The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...

in December 1987, the

became effectively irrelevant, and in July 1988 Hussein announced that Jordan had relinquished any claim to sovereignty over the

. An

international peace conference The International Peace Conference was an anti-war conference held on December 10, 2005. It was organised by the Stop the War Coalition (StWC), and included speakers from Iraq, the United States, and Italy. The conference sold out a week before ...

between Israel and the Arab countries was eventually held in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

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 in the United Kingdom Shimon Peres Eponymous treaties Treaties of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Jordan in the Arab–Israeli conflict

Overview

See also

References