Sharm El Sheikh Summit: Understanding memorundum

After two days of strenuous negotiations hosted by Egypt with the aim of stemming bloodshed witnessed by the Palestinian territories, Presidents Mubarak, Clinton, Arafat, King Abdullah of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and EU representative Javier Solana, agreed on ending violence in the occupied territories, ending siege, setting up a fact finding committee on the latest events, return to peace negotiations and resuming efforts in order to reach a permanent agreement that is based on the Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.

US President Bill Clinton told the closing session of Sharm E1 Sheikh summit that the leaders have agreed on the following three goals: First: ending confrontations, avoiding points of friction, returning to the pre-crisis position, redeployment of troops, opening Gaza airport and bolstering security cooperation among Israelis and Palestinians.

Second: The United States, Palestinians and Israelis would act in consultation with the United Nations on setting up a fact finding committee to examine how to avoid recurrence of the latest incidents. Report to be drafted by this committee will be supervised the US President, the United Nations Secretary General.

Third: The parties concerned should return to negotiations within two weeks to reach an agreement on the basis of the Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.