Article Outline
Arab League, informal name of the League of Arab States, a voluntary association of independent countries whose peoples are mainly Arabic speaking. Its stated purposes are to strengthen ties among the member states, coordinate their policies, and promote their common interests.
The league was founded in Cairo in 1945 by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (Jordan, as of 1949), and Yemen. Countries that later joined are: Algeria (1962), Bahrain (1971), Comoros (1993), Djibouti (1977), Kuwait (1961), Libya (1953), Mauritania (1973), Morocco (1958), Oman (1971), Qatar (1971), Somalia (1974), Southern Yemen (1967), Sudan (1956), Tunisia (1958), and the United Arab Emirates (1971). The Palestine Liberation Organization was admitted in 1976. Egypt's membership was suspended in 1979 after it signed a peace treaty with Israel; the league's headquarters was moved from Cairo, Egypt, to Tunis, Tunisia. In 1987 Arab leaders decided to renew diplomatic ties with Egypt. Egypt was readmitted to the league in 1989 and the league's headquarters was moved back to Cairo.
The supreme organ of the Arab League is its council, made up of all the member states; each state has one vote. Unanimous council decisions are binding on all members. Majority decisions are binding only on those members who accepted them. The council convenes twice annually, in March and September. It convenes in special session upon the request of two member states whenever the need arises. The league appoints, by two-thirds majority, a secretary general, who is in charge of the administration and financial offices, called the secretariat general. The secretariat general is divided into several departments concerned with political, economic, social, and legal affairs. Ahmed Esmat Abdul Maguid was unanimously voted secretary general by the council in 1991. Other specialized agencies connected with the league include the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization; and the Arab League Labor Organization.
The Egyptian government first proposed the Arab League in 1943. Egypt and some of the other Arab states wanted closer cooperation without the loss of self-rule that would result from total union. The original charter of the league created a regional organization of sovereign states that was neither a union nor a federation. Among the goals the league set for itself were winning independence for all Arabs still under alien rule, and to prevent the Jewish minority in Palestine (then governed by the British) from creating a Jewish state. The members eventually formed a joint defense council, an economic council, and a permanent military command.
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