Rhodes Talks
RHODES TALKS
Talks held on the island of Rhodes, Greece, formally ending the 1948 Arab-Israel War, and resulting in the signing of two general armistice agreements. On 24 February 1949 an armistice was signed between Israel and Egypt through Ralph Bunche's efforts as UN mediator. Although of a military nature, this first agreement conveys an implicit recognition of the Israeli state by an Arab government. Although it provided for demilitarized zones in the Nitzana-Abu Ageila sector, it did not specify Israeli shipping rights through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran (a blockade was to last for thirty years). On 3 April, a second Rhodes armistice was signed between Israel and the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan. The agreement left a number of issues unresolved, including Jewish access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem and Jordanian access to the south through the Bethlehem road, but it served as the framework of relations between the two states for nearly twenty years, until the Arab-Israel War of 1967.
SEE ALSO Arab-Israel War (1948);Arab-Israel War (1967).