Algeria to welcome 31st Arab League Summit on Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Algiers, the capital of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria is set ready for the 31st Arab League Summit slated for November 01, 02, 2022.

Prior to this important event, the host is leaving no stone unturned to guarantee a warm welcome to the various delegations invited to the summit.

The Arab League is a union of Arab States in the Middle East and parts of Africa whose recurrent gatherings try to reach consensus and resolutions on regional and local crises. It was launched on March 22nd 1945 in Cairo Egypt (United Arab Republic then).

Eleven African countries are members of the League. These include Djibouti, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Mauritania, Comoros and Libya.

The league’s founding member states included Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Transjordan (now Jordan), Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Because of consistently upholding the Pan- Arabism principle one of its foundation’s core values, others later joined. This included Libya (1953), Sudan (1956), Tunisia and Morocco (1958), Kuwait (1961), Algeria (1962), Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (1971), Mauritania (1973), Somalia (1974), the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; 1976), Djibouti (1977) and Comoros (1993). When political instability hit Yemen between 1967 and 1990, the two parallel entities were separately represented.

Each member of the league has one vote in its Council and a decision is binding for members states that have voted for them.

The core principles for its foundation were to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties. The signing on April 13, 1950, of an agreement on joint defense and economic cooperation also committed the signatories to coordination of military defense measures.

The league concentrated more on economic, cultural, and social programs. In 1959 it held the first Arab petroleum congress and in 1964 established the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO). Also in 1964, despite objections by Jordan, the league granted the PLO observer status as the representative of all Palestinians. This was upgraded to full membership in 1976.

Under the leadership of Mahmoud Riad, the third secretary-general of the league (1972–79), political activity increased. The league, however, was weakened by internal dissension on political issues, especially those concerning Israel and the Palestine. After Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel on March 26, 1979, the other members of the Arab League voted to suspend Egypt’s membership and to transfer the league’s headquarters from Cairo to Tunis, Tunisia. However upon harmonizing this issue, Egypt was reinstated as a member of the league in 1989, and the league’s headquarters returned to Cairo in 1990.

The last summit was held in Tunis, in March 2019. Due to the Covdi-19 outbreak, the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled.

Compiled by Irene GAOUDA and Jenipher ASIIMWE, in Algiers

With additionnal notes by the A.L.S