Oslo Accords

   In the spring and summer of 1993, Israeli and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officials met secretly in various European locales in an effort to establish the framework for negotiations leading to a permanent peace agreement. These talks occurred under the auspices of the Norwegian government and its foreign minister, Johan Jorgen Holst. The final series of talks took place near the Norwegian capital, Oslo, and concluded with the exchange of letters of recognition between Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat on 9 September 1993 and the formal signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles by Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and PLO official Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) at the White House on 13 September 1993.

   The Declaration of Principles established the goal of an Israel-PLO peace agreement and set the framework and timetable for achieving it. It was followed by a series of partial interim agreements, including the Cairo Agreement of 4 May 1994 (also referred to as the "Gaza-Jericho First" Agreement, or the Oslo I Implementing Agreement); an Early Empowerment Agreement signed on 24 August 1994; the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of 28 September 1995 (also known as the Oslo II Accords); the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on 17 January 1997; and the Wye River Memorandum signed by Israel and the PA on 23 October 1998.

   See also Arab-Israeli Conflict.