Arab League

Arab League An association founded in 1945 by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (Jordan), Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, originally to promote political cooperation among Arab countries. Since then, it has been joined by Libya (1953), Sudan (1956), Morocco (1958), Tunisia (1958), Kuwait (1961), Algeria (1962), South Yemen (1967), Qatar (1971), Bahrain (1971), Oman (1971), the United Arab Emirates (1971), Mauritania (1973), Somalia (1974), the PLO (1976), Djibouti (1977), and the Comoros (1993). In 1950, its aims were extended to military, and in 1957 to economic, cooperation. It has largely failed in its aim to promote Arab unity, because of long-standing conflicts between some of its members (e.g. Syria and Iraq), the rejection of the self-proclaimed Iraqi leadership, and the different political systems in the various member states. Following the Camp David agreement, Egypt's membership was suspended in 1979, and its full status was not restored until general Arab moves towards an agreement with Israel in 1989. The League was fundamentally undermined by the Gulf War, when the majority of its members fought under the leadership of the USA against a fellow Arab state. As a result, it did not have a summit meeting for a decade, until unity was found again in 2001, in support of the Palestinians. However, the Arab League was again thrown into disarray by the response to September 11 and President Bush's War on Terrorism. While denunciation of the attacks was universal, US action against Bin Laden in Afghanistan was less popular. In particular, the League was uncertain how to respond to a broadening of the War on Terrorism to its own members, notably Iraq.

http://www.arableagueonline.org

pan-Arabism