Geneva set for US-Iran memorandum after weeks of war
The Swiss city will host a Pakistan-backed signing ceremony as Washington and Tehran begin a 60-day negotiation period, Al Jazeera reported.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
The United States and Iran are due to sign a memorandum of understanding in Geneva on Friday that would end weeks of war and open 60 days of negotiations, Al Jazeera reported. Pakistan will host the ceremony after mediating between the two governments since the conflict began with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera reported that the officials who will attend for the US, Iran and Pakistan have not been announced. The choice of Geneva places the event in a city long associated with diplomacy, international law and ceasefire arrangements.
Ian Lesser, a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told Al Jazeera that Geneva offers Swiss neutrality, United Nations and multinational agencies, discreet venues and practical transport links. He said those factors make the city well suited for such agreements.
A city tied to war rules and ceasefires
Geneva’s diplomatic role is best known through the Geneva Conventions. The original 1864 convention, initiated by Swiss businessman Henry Dunant and drafted by the International Committee of the Red Cross after the 1859 Battle of Solferino, set rules for treating sick and wounded soldiers, according to Al Jazeera.
In 1949, after World War II, 63 countries signed four updated Geneva Conventions, which the ICRC describes as a foundation of international humanitarian law. The treaties cover wounded and sick armed forces in the field, wounded and shipwrecked forces at sea, prisoners of war and civilian protection in wartime, according to the ICRC accounts cited by Al Jazeera.
Geneva also hosted the 1954 accords that helped end the First Indochina War, Al Jazeera reported. Representatives of Cambodia, Laos, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and other parties signed the agreements on July 20-21, 1954. The accords ended French colonial rule in Indochina, granted independence to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and temporarily split Vietnam at the 17th parallel pending elections planned for July 1956, according to Al Jazeera.
Middle East agreements signed in Geneva
Several Arab-Israeli disengagement deals were also concluded in Geneva. The Israel-Syria Disengagement Accord, brokered by the US and signed on May 31, 1974, ended hostilities after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, according to Al Jazeera. The agreement created a separation zone, called for disengagement of forces and prisoner releases, and provided for the UN Disengagement Observer Force in a buffer zone.
The Egypt-Israel accord known as the Sinai II Agreement was signed in Geneva on September 4, 1975, after mediation by then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Al Jazeera reported. US government archives described it as a step toward a durable peace after the Yom Kippur War. The UN said the deal included Israeli withdrawals in Sinai, a UN-monitored buffer zone, opening the Suez Canal to Israeli non-military cargo ships and American early-warning stations near the passes.
Later accords and initiatives
UN-brokered Geneva accords signed on April 14, 1988, by Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the Soviet Union and the US as guarantors, helped end the Soviet war in Afghanistan, according to Al Jazeera. The agreements led to Soviet troop withdrawal and called for voluntary refugee returns.
In 1991, Croatia, Serbia and the former Yugoslavia signed a Geneva ceasefire known as the Vance Plan, negotiated by then-US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Al Jazeera reported. The UN said it called for an immediate halt to hostilities, lifting Croatia’s blockade of Yugoslav army barracks and withdrawing Yugoslav People’s Army forces from Croatia.
The city also lent its name to the 2003 Geneva Initiative, a draft Israeli-Palestinian two-state plan supported by the Swiss government and launched in December 2003, according to Al Jazeera. The proposal included arrangements on refugees, Jerusalem, holy sites, settlements and borders, but Al Jazeera reported that neither Israel nor Palestine officially adopted it.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.