In Geneva, Egypt and Israel sign the Interim Agreement. The instrument is dated 4 September 1975. The text had been initialled on 1 September, in Jerusalem and Alexandria. It is not the disengagement agreement of 18 January 1974, and it is not the peace treaty of 1979.

Henry Kissinger mediated, in shuttle, between Anwar el-Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin. At the Palais des Nations there sign, for Israel, Mordechai Gazit, with Major-General Herzl Shafir; for Egypt, General Taha el-Magdoub. Article I says that the conflict between them and in the Middle East shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means, and recalls Security Council Resolution 338 of 22 October 1973.

Article II: the parties will not resort to the threat or use of force, or to military blockade. Article III: the cease-fire on land, sea and air remains scrupulous; the annex, the map and the protocol still to come form part of the agreement. Article VIII states: it is a step towards a just and lasting peace, not a final peace agreement.

Israeli forces deploy east of lines J and M; Egyptian forces, west of line E. Between E and F, and between J and K, armament and strength are limited: at most eight infantry battalions, 75 tanks, 72 artillery pieces with a range of at most 12 km, 8,000 men. Between E and J stands the buffer zone of the UN Emergency Force, with its mandate extended yearly. South of E and west of M there are no military forces; there the Abu Rudeis oilfields return.

In the buffer zone an early-warning system is entrusted to the United States: two surveillance stations, one Egyptian and one Israeli, each with at most 250 people; three American watch stations in the Mitla and Giddi Passes, with at most 200 American civilians, without heavy arms. American aerial reconnaissance, one mission every 7–10 days, goes to both parties and to the UN coordinator.

Non-military cargoes to or from Israel pass through the Suez Canal. A joint commission, under the UN coordinator, assists the Emergency Force. The agreement is not peace; negotiations for a final agreement remain, within the Geneva conference, under Resolution 338.

The agreement enters into force on signature of the Protocol. The military working group at Geneva has two weeks to write it; on 22 September Gazit, Shafir and Magdoub initial it. The first phase is the handover of the oil, within eight weeks of starting; redeployment is complete within five months. The Arab world, especially Syria and the PLO, judges Cairo harshly for the step taken with the West.

It is not Camp David of 1978. The signatures at Geneva are Gazit’s and Magdoub’s, on a text that says, in black and white, that it does not close the peace.

Image: Palace of Nations, Geneva; Vassil, 2014; CC0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Sinai Interim Agreement. Treaty text: Agreement between Egypt and Israel, 4 September 1975 (UN Peacemaker).