New Camp David with a Saudi touch

When Egypt signed the peace agreement known as Camp David with Israel in 1978, Arab countries were up in arms, accusing it of breaching the united Arab stance towards the occupation state – no to normalisation or peace talks.

As a sign of their anger, they called for an urgent Arab League meeting, criticising Egypt, they agreed to boycott it, condemn the agreement and move their headquarters from Cairo to Tunis, Tunisia.

However, the peace agreement included an Israeli obligation to conduct talks with Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Arab-Israeli relations remained sour and the Palestinian resistance was left disappointed as the peace agreement did not include an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands occupied in the 1967 war.

Gradually, setting up relations with Israel became a negotiable idea and a number of Arab governments started secret normalisation talk. Later, some Arab countries announced they had normalised relations with Israel and found that Egypt does not deserve to be boycotted. The Arab League office was returned to Cairo.

The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), one of the outspoken critics of the Egyptian-Israeli agreement, forged a peace agreement with Israel, recognised Israel’s right to live peacefully and safely on land which was previously Palestine and agreed to establish an autonomous entity on parts of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

However, some of the Arab countries remained stubborn and insisted that Israel was an enemy which had no place among Arabs. The most of prominent country in this camp was Saudi Arabia.

However, in 2002, Saudi Arabia proposed a peace plan, including normalising relations with Israel. This did not shock anyone because almost all Arab states had some kind of relationship with Israel by this point. Saudi Arabia defended its position saying that it wanted stability to prevail in the region, however it did not state outright that it would have relations with Israel itself in an effort to protect itself from its conservative nationals.

Critics believed this was the start of talks between Saudi and Israel.

Now, as Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi announced his country had redrawn its naval borders with Saudi and conceded the islands of Sanafir and Tiran, it has become evident that Saudi was in talks with Egypt. There are not many complications surrounding the matter of the islands which Israel occupied in 1967.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon announced last Tuesday that there were talks between Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US. Saudi had guaranteed Israel safe passage through the islands in return for the latter’s agreement for a Saudi-Egyptian bridge.

“[There has been] an agreement between Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the United States to transfer the responsibility of the islands,” Ya’alon said. “Israel has also agreed to the construction of a bridge as part of Saudi Arabia’s development plans on the two islands.”

At the same day, former Egyptian official Abdullah Al-Ashaal said that in the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, Cairo promised to respect freedom of shipping in Israel’s Eilat, a commitment that Saudi Arabia said it will uphold when it takes over the islands.

This implies that Saudi has committed to the terms of the peace agreement as it has taken ownership of lands covered by the treaty.

Now, Camp David has completely changed. Most of the Arabs who rejected it currently accept it with the most prominent opposing side; Saudi Arabia, now part of it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.