Arab League

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جامعة الدول العربية
Jāmaʻat ad-Duwwal al-ʻArabiyya
Arab League
Flag
Headquarters Cairo, Egypt1
Largest cities Cairo, Baghdad, Casablanca, Damascus, Khartoum, Alexandria, Dubai, Beirut
Official languages Arabic
Membership 22 Arab states
2 observer states
Leaders
 -  Secretary General Amr Moussa (since 2001)
 -  Council of
the Arab League
Sudan
 -  Speaker of
the Arab Parliament
Nabih Berri
Establishment
 -  Alexandria Protocol March 22, 1945 
Area
 -  Total 13,953,041 (Western Sahara Included) = 13,687,041 (Western Sahara Discluded) km² (2nd2)
 sq mi 
Population
 -  2007 estimate 339,510,535 (3rd2)
 -  Density 115.6 /km² 
299.4 /sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2005 estimate
 -  Total $1,564,789 million (10th2)
 -  Per capita $7,890 
Currency see footnote 3 below
Time zone (UTC+0 to +4)
Website
(Arabic) http://arableagueonline.org/
1 From 1979 to 1989: Tunis, Tunisia.
2 If ranked.
3 ISO 4217 codes bracketed:
Algerian dinar (DZB) • Bahraini dinar (BHD) • Comorian franc (KMF) • Djiboutian franc (DJF) • Egyptian pound (EGP) • Iraqi dinar (IQD) • Jordanian dinar (JD) • Kuwaiti dinar (KWD) • Lebanese livre (LL, LBP) • Libyan dinar (LYD) • Mauritanian ouguiya (MRO) • Moroccan dirham (MAD) • Omani rial (OMR) • Qatari riyal (QAR) • Saudi riyal (SAR) • Somali shilling (SOS) • Sudanese pound (SDD) • Syrian pound (SYP) • Tunisian dinar (TND) • United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) • Yemeni rial (YER)

The Arab League (Arabic: جامعة الدول العربية), Also called League of the Arab States is a regional organization of Arab States in the Middle East and North Africa formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945. Seven states formed the League, defining its main goals as to:

"draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries."[1]

Each member has one vote on the League Council, Decisions being binding only on those states that have voted for them. The aims of the League in 1945 were to strenghthen 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 Cooperaion also committed the signatories to coordination of military defense measures.

Contents

  • 1 History
  • 2 Geography and Members
    • 2.1 Annex on Palestine
  • 3 Government
    • 3.1 the League Council
    • 3.2 The Permanent Committees
    • 3.3 The General Secretariat
    • 3.4 Common Defense Council
    • 3.5 The Economic and Social Council
    • 3.6 Specialized Organizations
  • 4 Comparisons with other organizations
  • 5 Secretaries General
  • 6 Timeline
  • 7 Arab League Summits
  • 8 Organization
  • 9 See also
  • 10 Notes
  • 11 References
  • 12 External links

[edit] History

In its early years, the Arab League concentrated mainly on economic, cultural and social programs. In 1959, it held the first petroleum congress and, in 1964, established the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALESCO). In 1974, despite objections by Jordan, the league recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinians.

The League was weakened over the years by internal dissensions on political issues, especially those concerning Israel and the Palestinians. After Egypt signed a separate peace treaty with Israel on March 26, 1979, other Arab League members met in Baghdad and voted to suspend Egypt's membership and transfer the League's headquarters from Cairo to Tunis. In May 1988, nine years later, Egypt was readmitted and resumed membership. The headquarters was returned to Cairo in 1990. This step was sharply disputed as members of the League were deeply divided over the Kuwait crisis and the invitation extended by Saudi Arabia to the United States, which allowed foreign military build-up in its Eastern province. The League was effectively paralyzed by the eruption of the Gulf crisis, and its future as a regional organization became highly uncertain.

Until the Israeli-Lebanese summer war in 2006, the League had started making positive moves and is starting to regain respect with the Arab public and media.

Arabs in general perceive themselves as one people divided among a number of states with history, geography, language, culture, and socio-economic interests propelling them to forge one great Arab Nation (Arabism). The British Empire realized this in the early part of the twentieth century, which helped them secure the cooperation of the Arabs, leading them to revolt (Arab Revolt) against the Turkish Ottoman Empire during World War I. The British promised to help the Arabs establish a united Arab kingdom under Sherif Hussein of Mecca, which would encompass the Asian part of the Arab World (including the modern day Arabian peninsula, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel and Jordan). After winning the war, however, the British betrayed Sharif Hussein and instead helped divide the region into mini states, implementing their policy of "Divide and Rule".

The British needed Arab cooperation once more during World War II, and again returned to play the Pan Arabism card by encouraging the formation of the League. Many Arab intellectuals believe that the British did not want the League to act as a step towards Arab unity, but actually used the League to prevent it.

Several suggestions were made for the name of the organization: Iraq suggested Arab Union; Syria suggested Arab Alliance; and Egypt proposed the Arab League. Egypt's proposal was adopted, and later amended to the League of Arab States.

[edit] Geography and Members

The Arab League is around 14 million square km, making it only second if ranked after Russia, standing 17 million square km;and is mainly divided in Two Continents The Asian Middle East and North Africa, it is mainly an Arid Desert Area it has the biggest Desert The Sahara and the Longest River The Nile running through it, its lands has witnessed the rise and fall of most ancient civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Phonecia, Carthage, Kush, Nabateans, and Axum all lived within its modern day borders, it has several very fertile lands for farming on the Nile Valley and the High Atlas Mountains of north Africa and the fertile Cersent stretching from Iraq to Syria Lebanon and Palestine, it also has deep forests in Southern Arabia and South of Sudan.

Arab League Member states divided in the two continents of Asia and Africa

The current members and observers of the Arab League and their dates of admission (observers in italics):

 Egypt[2]
 Iraq[3]
 Jordan[4]b
 Lebanon[5]
 Saudi Arabia[6]  
 Syria[7]		 March 22, 1945a
 Yemen May 5, 1945
 Libya March 28, 1953c
 Sudan January 19, 1956
 Moroccod
 Tunisia		 October 1, 1958
 Kuwait July 20, 1961
 Algeria August 16, 1962
 UAE
 Bahrain
 Qatar		 September 11, 1971
 Oman September 29, 1971
 Mauritania   November 26, 1973
 Somalia February 14, 1974
 Palestine[8]e September 9 1976
 Djibouti April 9, 1977
 Comoros November 20, 1993
 Eritrea observer since 2003[9]
 India observer since 2007[10]

a Date of foundation.
b As Transjordan.
c Libya announced its withdrawal on October 24, 2002, which would have been effective one year later; however, Libya then retracted its decision to withdraw on January 16, 2003, reaffirmed it on April 3, 2003, before retracting it again on May 25, 2003.
d The sovereignty of Western Sahara is disputed between Morocco and the Polisario Front's Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic government. The Arab League recognizes it as a part of Morocco.
e Representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

[edit] Annex on Palestine

Mindful of their previous announcements in support of the Arabs of Palestine the framers of the Pact were determined to include them within the League from its inauguration.[11] This was done by means of an annex that declared, "Even though Palestine was not able to control her own destiny, it was on the basis of the recognition of her independence that the Covenant of the League of Nations determined a system of government for her. Her existence and her independence among the nations can, therefore, no more be questioned de jure than the independence of any of the other Arab States... Therefore, the States signatory to the Pact of the Arab League consider that in view of Palestine's special circumstances, the Council of the League should designate an Arab delegate from Palestine to participate in its work until this country enjoys actual independence."[1]

[edit] Government

The Character of the Arab League endorsed in Principle the Idea of an overall Arab Homeland but fully respected the sovereignty of the individual member states at the same time. Since then, Arab Order has Based on this Duality. Preservation of individual statehood derived its strengths from Natural preferences of Ruling Elites to Maintain their power and their indipendence in Decision Making. The Fear of Rich Arabs that Poorer Arabs may come to share their wealth in the name of Arab Nationalism, the feuds among Arab rulers and the influence of external powers that saw potential danger in Arab Unity; all reinforced this duality.

The Arab League Comprises Six Levels:

[edit] the League Council

the council of the League is the highest level Charged with Implementation of the objectives of the league, that include:

[edit] The Permanent Committees

In Accordance with Article 4 of the Charter, permanent committees should be established to deal with main subjects specified in Article 2. Each committee is to include representatives of all member states. these subjects are

[edit] The General Secretariat

The General Secretatriat is the backbone of the league. it comprises eight Executive Divisions and a number of supporting Units. the Secretary general has the righ to attend the meetings of the League council. He can draw the attention of the council and/pr th member states to any problem that may hurt the relations among the members or with other countries. he is responsible for the execution of the decision made by the council, and is the chief executive of the entire staff of the League. in practice, the political stature of the Arab League secretary general grew with years, he became the representative of the international arena, the mediator in case of dispute among Arab States and a coordinator of Arab States positions towads International Issues.

[edit] Common Defense Council

The common defense council was formed in 13-04-1950 to include Ministers of Foreign affairs and defense of all member states. for the first time, decisions taken by two thirds majority were binding on all members. the Central point in the common defense treaty is that any armed aggression on any one or more member state is to be considered an aggression on all members, and should be dealt with in accordance with the right of individual and common self-defense. It was originally meant as a safeguard against Israeli threat, but it is applicable to any threat.

[edit] The Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social council was created in 1950 to promote and supervise the economic integration of the Arab Worlds including an Arab Common Market and the establishment of central specialized institutions such as the Arab Monetary Fund, the Arab Economic and Social Fund, and the Council for Arab Economic Unity. The achievements in this area were minor as member states were not willing to give up any part of their sovereignty, or allow full coordination of their development plans. The failure became more sever after the Oil Shock of 1973 and 1974, when oil producing countries became superrich, and referred to put distance between themselves and poorer Arab Countries in Africa, the new found oil wealth caused a setback to the integration process which was progressing slowly but surely in the right direction

[edit] Specialized Organizations

Arab Specialized Organizations represent the Infrastructure of the Arab League, over 20 Organizations were founded within the Framework of the Arab League, They are:

[edit] Comparisons with other organizations

The Arab League resembles the Organization of American States, the Council of Europe, and the African Union, in that it has primarily political aims; one can regard each of these organizations as a regional version of the United Nations. However, its membership is based on culture rather than geographical location (which is the basis for membership of the other organizations cited above). In this respect the Arab League may bring to mind organizations such as the Latin Union.

The Arab League differs notably from some other regional organizations such as the European Union, in that it has not achieved any significant degree of regional integration and the organization itself has no direct relations with the citizens of its member states.

All Arab League members are also members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. In turn, the memberships of the smaller GCC and Arab Maghreb Union organizations are subsets of that of the Arab League.

The organization of the Arab League is based on principles that would support and promote a unified Arab Nationalism and a common position among Arabic states on various issues. It is less likely to resemble organizations such as the African Union, where unified nationalism is impossible due to the heterogeneity of its members.

Amr Moussa, Current Secretary General of the Arab League

[edit] Secretaries General

Abdul Rahman Azzam 1945 to 1952
Abdul Khalek Hassouna 1952 to 1972
Chedli Klibi 1979 to 1990
Ahmad Esmat Abd al Meguid 1991 to 2001
Amr Moussa 2001 to Date

[edit] Timeline

[edit] Arab League Summits

  1. Cairo: 13-17 Jan. 1964.
  2. Alexandria: 5-11 Sep. 1964.
  3. Casablanca: 13-17 Sep. 1965.
  4. Khartoum: 29 Aug. 1967.
  5. Rabat: 21-23 Dec. 1969.
  6. Cairo (first emergency summit): 21-27 Sep. 1970
  7. Algiers: 26-28 Nov.1973.
  8. Rabat: 29 Oct. 1974.
  9. Riyadh (2nd emergency summit): 17-28 Oct. 1976.
  10. Cairo: 25-26 Oct. 1976.
  11. Baghdad: 2-5 Nov.1978.
  12. Tunis: 20-22 Nov. 1979.
  13. Amman: 21-22 Nov. 1980.
  14. Fes: 6-9 Sep. 1982.
  15. Casablanca (3rd emergency summit): 7-9 Sep. 1985
  16. Amman (4th emergency summit): 8-12 Nov. 1987.
  17. Algiers (5th emergency summit): 7-9 Jun. 1988.
  18. Casablanca (6th emergency summit): 23-26 Jun. 1989.
  19. Baghdad (7th emergency summit): 28-30 Mar. 1990.
  20. Cairo (8th emergency summit): 9-10 Aug. 1990
  21. Cairo (9th emergency summit): 22-23 Jun. 1996.
  22. Cairo (10th emergency summit): 21-22 Oct. 2000.
  23. Amman: 27-28 Mar. 2001.
  24. Beirut: 27-28 Mar. 2002.
  25. Sharm el-Sheikh: 1 Mar. 2003.
  26. Tunis: 22-23 May. 2004.
  27. Algiers: 22-23 Mar. 2005.
  28. Khartoum: 28-30 Mar. 2006.
  29. Riyadh: 27-28 Mar. 2007.

[edit] Organization