A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt signed in Washington, DC, on 26 March 1979. It was signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by US President Jimmy Carter. The treaty was the culmination of negotiations which began with Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in 1977, and followed the framework established in the Camp David Accords of 1978, for which Sadat and Begin were awarded that year’s Nobel Peace Prize. According to the treaty, Israel was to withdraw all military and civilian presence from the Sinai Peninsula, returning to the 1949 armistice line. This included the evacuation of a number of Israeli settlements established since 1967, notably the towns of Ofira (Sharm el-Sheikh) and Yamit (near El-Arish). The withdrawal was completed in June 1982. Egypt agreed to the demilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula, except for limited police presence, monitored by the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) created in 1981. In addition, diplomatic and trade relations were established between the two countries.
Credit: ECF - Economic Cooperation Foundation. Last update at 1970-01-17 19:56.
