Madrid peace conference letter of invitation


The Madrid peace conference letter of invitation, also known as the Madrid Invitation or Letter of invitation to the Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid, of October 19, 1991, was a formal diplomatic invitation by the United States and the Soviet Union issued to Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians, calling on them to come together and hold a peace conference in Madrid, Spain. The resulting conference came to be known as the Madrid Conference that commenced on October 30, 1991.
The invitation was issued in the name of US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and signed by US Secretary of State James A. Baker, III and Boris Pankin for the Soviet Union, and a reply by October 23, 1991, was requested.
It is widely agreed that the invitation, which was an outcome of compromises by all sides, detailed the structure of the Madrid process in four main areas:
  1. That there would be an opening conference having no power to impose solutions.
  2. It called for bilateral talks with the Arab states bordering Israel.
  3. Talks would be held with the Palestinians on a five-year period of interim self-rule, which would then be followed by talks on the permanent status.
  4. There would be multilateral talks on key regional issues such as refugees.

    Text and content of invitation

Following are the main points within the invitation :

Arab–Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties