Arab League

What is the Arab League?

The Arab League is a regional organisation consisting of 22 members. The League was founded in March 1945 and the headquarters for the league can be found in Cairo in Egypt. The member states are geographically located across Africa and Asia, with many being located in the region denoted as the Middle East.

The League was established to facilitate fostering unity and collaboration among Arab nations. Like many of the regional or international organisations that emerged in the 20th century, such as the European Union, African League and United Nations, the Arab League sought to protect the sovereignty and independence of its member states.

Fig. 1 - Flag of the Arab League

Arab League Founders

Founded in March 1945 the Arab League was initially comprised of six member states. These included:

1. Egypt,

2. Saudi Arabia,

3. Lebanon,

4. Syria,

5. Transjordan (now Jordan)

6. Iraq.

The Arab League was founded after the Second World War, the alliance intended to maintain the independence of Arabic nations in the face of concerns that territory would be divided between colonial powers such as France and Britain.

Arab League Countries

Below is a table of the 22 members of the Arab League and the date they joined the league.

Table 1 - Members of the Arab League

Fig. 2 Map of the Arab League

The Charter of the Arab League states:

But what do we mean when we refer to "independent Arab states"?

Whilst the majority of states within the Arab League have a Muslim majority population, a strict Islamic affiliation is not a requirement for membership in the Arab League. Rather admission is based predominantly on whether the nation is Arabic-speaking, if Arabic is one of the official languages or if the population has Arab origins.

Additionally, there are also a number of observer states in the Arab League, these are :

1. Armenia

2. Eritrea

3. Chad

4. Brazil

5. Venezuela

6. India

7. Greece

Observers are not granted voting rights but can express their opinions, many of these nations have sizable Arab populations.

Despite these requirements, not all countries with sizable Arab populations are member states. For example, Iran, Turkey, and Israel are notably not affiliated with the Arab League as either full members or as an observer. The reasons for this are usually political, and often because of conflicts within the region.

Arab League Summit

The annual Arab League Summits consists of meetings with all members of the league in which current matters and issues are discussed and a number of resolutions are adopted. Below are some examples of some important summits that have occurred throughout the Arab League's existence.

Khartoum Summit of 1967

This summit occurred in the aftermath of the Israeli-Arab Six Day War, a conflict which resulted in Arab defeat by Israel.

The summit produced the Khartoum Resolution. In this resolution, members of the Arab League agree not to negotiate with Israel, not to formally recognise Israel and not to establish peace with Israel.

The summit also highlighted the support of the Arab League members for Palestine and supported the Palestinian campaign to regain control of contested territory.

Casablanca Summit of 1989

As previously mentioned, Egypt was previously suspended from the Arab League owing to its involvement in a peace treaty with Israel. From the previous example, you can see why this action led to Egypt's suspension from the League.

The 1989 Casablanca Summit saw the readmittance of Egypt into the Arab League.

Successes and Failures of the Arab League

The Arab League and its effectiveness are often closely scrutinised with there being a large consensus that the infighting and disagreements among Arab states are a hindrance to the effectiveness of the League. Below, we will explore some of the successes and failures of the Arab League.

Successes

The Arab League has had many successes since its creation. Here are a few of the important ones.

• The Arab League's swift intervention in the events of the Arab Spring led to the condemnation of the actions of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the violence enacted on protestors in Libya.

• After the Israeli-Arab Six Day War, the Arab League placed an oil embargo on the states that supported Israel in the war either directly or through the provision of arms to Israel such as the US, the UK and the Netherlands. As the Arab nations were the world's largest suppliers of oil, the embargo, had devastating effects in relation to the cost of oil for the nations that supported Israel. This resulted in the infamous oil crisis of the 1970s, where for countries such as the USA, the price of oil per barrel increased by 400%.

• The Arab League has also been successful in providing Palestine with recognition and support to a degree. Whilst the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists, the Arab League had created a space in which Palestine can be represented through the admission of Palestine as a member of the league and the continued concern for the State of Palestine in the affairs of the Arab League.

Failures

Despite this, they have also had failures. The following are some prominent examples.

• A structural failure of the Arab League is the fact that decisions and resolutions passed by the League are non-binding except if the vote was unanimous. This then creates the image of the Arab League as simply a talking shop where members have no obligation to act on decisions further.

• Members of the Arab League also often fail to prioritise their role in the Arab League, annually many members often fail to pay their required donations to help fund the League on time or even at all. This can be crippling to the organisation and the work of the league and hinders its ability to undertake humanitarian programmes.

• Finally, another failure of the Arab League can be seen by its constant infighting on how to react to matters, the King of Saudi Arabia himself stated that "Arab reality has never been so distant from unity".² Many of the members of the Arab League are constantly in disagreement with one another, for example, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait highlighted the lack of unity amongst the Arab League members.