Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty
Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty
<p>Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty</p>
ISRAEL-JORDAN PEACE TREATY
October 26, 1994
On October 26, 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Prime Minister Abdul-Salam Majali signed the Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the second peace treaty Israel has signed since its independence. The ceremony took place at the Arava border crossing, one of two border crossings opened in recent months between Israel and Jordan.
The peace treaty with Jordan comprises 30 articles, five annexes which address boundary demarcations, water issues, police cooperation, environmental issues and mutual border crossings, and six maps.
The main provisions of the treaty are as follows:
� International boundary
The Agreement delimits the agreed international boundary between Israel and Jordan, including territorial waters and airspace. This boundary is delimited with reference to the Mandate boundary and is shown on the maps attached to the agreement. The Agreement provides for some minor mutual border modifications which will enable Israeli farmers in the Arava to continue to cultivate their land....
� Security
The two parties will refrain from any acts of belligerency or hostility, will ensure that no threats of violence against the other party originate from within their territory, and undertake to take necessary and effective measures to prevent acts of terrorism. They will also refrain from joining a coalition whose objectives include military aggression against the other party. Israel and Jordan will abstain from hostile propaganda and will repeal all discriminatory references and expressions of hostility in their respective legislation.
� Water
Israel and Jordan have agreed on allocations of water from the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers and from Araba/Arava ground waters. Israel has agreed to transfer to Jordan 50 million cubic meters of water annually from the northern part of the country. In addition, the two countries have agreed to cooperate to alleviate the water shortage by developing existing and new water resources, by preventing contamination of water resources, and by minimizing water wastage.
� Freedom of Passage
Nationals from both countries and their vehicles will be permitted freedom of movement through open roads and border-crossings. Vessels from either country will have the right to passage through territorial waters, and will be granted access to ports. Negotiations are underway towards a Civil Aviation Agreement. The Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba are considered international waterways, open to all nations for freedom of navigation and over flight.
� Places of Historical and Religious Significance
There will be freedom of access to the places of religious and historical significance. In accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status, as detailed in the Declaration of Principles, will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
� Refugees and Displaced Persons
The parties recognize the human problems caused by the conflict in the Middle East, and agree to alleviate them on a bilateral level and to try to resolve them....
� Normalization of Relations between Israel and Jordan
The peace treaty deals not only with an end to war, but also normalization. The two countries will establish full diplomatic relations, including the appointment of ambassadors and the establishment of embassies. Various articles of the treaty deal with practical issues of normalization in such matters as culture and science, the war against crime and drugs, transportation and roads, postal services and telecommunications, tourism the environment, energy, health, agriculture, and the development of the Jordan rift Valley and the Aqaba/Eilat area.
Economic cooperation is seen as one of the pillars of peace, vital to the promotion of secure and harmonious relations between the two peoples.
(Source: Middle East Peace Process - An Overview, Information Division Israel Foreign Ministry, Jerusalem, Extract)