Arab League

**The Arab League** is an organization made up of countries in the Arab world in Northern Africa and Southwest Asia. Most, though not all of these countries use Arabic as their official language. The purpose is to find ways for the countries to have unity and to work together to solve their problems.

## Background (1918 - 1945) 
The Arab League a regional organisation, finds its roots in two distinctive influences: Arab nationalism (or Arab nationalist movement), and British government” support.

### Arab Nationalism and Colonialism 
Arab Nationalism represents a movement that seeks the unity of Arab territories in the Arab world, and expresses a rejection of the Ottoman Empire domination.  This domination limited the sovereignty of these countries in the region.  However, in the beginning of the twentieth century, the control of the Ottoman Empire was facing the rising power control of colonial powers.  France and Great Britain, by the Skyes-Picot agreement, enforced their domination over their mandates from the League of Nations (Syria and Lebanon for France, Iraq and Palestine for Great Britain).  This partition prevented the evolution of Arab nationalist movement by dismantling the region and creating tensions between the countries.

**In 1943**, Nuri al-Said, former Prime Minister of Iraq under the British mandate, called for an union between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. This union called Arab League would be, for Nuri al-Said, a permanent council with members in charge of defense, communication, education, and the protection of minorities in the region. The Arab League appears then as a general agreement motivated by Arab nationalist movement.

## Mission
The organization uses the Arabic Language in its summits and all official papers, although it has never been stated by the League that Arabic is the Official Language. The Arab League was founded following the Protocol of Alexandria signed in 1945 by seven Arab States: Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Trans-Jordan (Jordan). Today the League has 24* members. All countries having Arabic as an official language are among the members of the League, except for Eritrea, Isreal and Chad which are not members.:

## Organisation 
An international treaty called the "Arab League States" organising the Arab League. This treaty is commonly called "the Pact". It has been signed by the first seven members in 1945.

### Members 
The countries in the Arab League are:
* Egypt - March 22, 1945 (Founder) (suspended, 1979-1989)
* Iraq - March 22, 1945 (Founder)
* Jordan - March 22, 1945 (Founder) (entered when still using the name "Transjordan")
* Lebanon - March 22, 1945 (Founder)
* Saudi Arabia - March 22, 1945 (Founder)
* Syria - March 22, 1945 (Founder)
* Libya - March 28, 1953
* Sudan - January 19, 1956
* Morocco - October 1, 1958
* Tunisia - October 1, 1958
* Kuwait - July 20, 1961
* Algeria - August 16, 1962
* United Arab Emirates - June 12, 1971
* Bahrain - September 11, 1971
* Qatar - September 11, 1971
* Oman - September 29, 19711974
* Yemen - May 5, 1945 (Founder)
* Palestine - succeeding to the position held by the Palestine Liberation Organization since September 9, 1976https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/arab-countries.html.::.

https://www.worlddata.info/languages/arabic.php.::.

### The Council 
The Arab League main organ is the Council (article 3 of the Pact). Each state member of the organisation has a representative in the Council with one vote (article 3 of the Pact). When the Council vote on a subject, the members of the League do not have to apply the decision if they voted against it (article 7 of the Pact). The members of the Council meet  twice a year in March and in September (article 11 of the Pact). The president of the Council is one of the state. It changes every ordinary meeting.

### The Secretary-General 
The Council chooses a Secretary-General with a two-third vote.

#### List of Secretaries-General 
### The Joint Defense Council 
Ministers of Defense and Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the member states compose the Joint Defense Council.

## Positions on conflicts 
### Conflicts between countries of the Arab League 
The members of the Arab League agree not to resolve their conflicts with force (article 3 of the Pact). If there is a conflict between two members of the Arab League, they can call for a resolution of the Council. In that case, the resolution is binding to both countries.

During the Alexandria conference in 1944, the founders of the Arab League chose Musa Alami to represent the Palestinian Arabs in the conference. In the Pact, the member states declare they support to the "Arabs of Palestine" against Israel.

During a summit in Lebanon in October 1947, the League decided that Arab nations would protect Palestinian territory with their regular armies. However, the member states were not able to agree on how they would implement this decision.

In the 1964 summit in Cairo, the League promoted the creation of a Palestinian entity. It led to the creation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

After the 1967 summit in Khartoum, the League issued a declaration called the *Khartoum Resolution*. It is famous for the "three noes" policy described in article 3 of the declaration."(...) the framework of the main principles by which the Arab States abide, namely, **no peace with Israel**, **no recognition of Israel**, **no negotiations with it**, (...)"

## References