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Arab League: Saudi Arabia
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The Arab League, the informal name of the League of Arab States, is 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 1950), and Yemen. It now has 22 member-states, and continues to pay close attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
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The Iraq War that began in 2003 badly split the Arab League generally along the same lines that the Arab world divided during the Gulf War of 1990-91. The states of the Arabian Gulf—Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, supported or at least refused to publicly object to the U.S.-led military deployments ahead of the war. Several, including Syria and the Palestinian Authority, are deeply opposed. The League itself, as is often the case... is unable to coordinate Arab policy.
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The area of members of the Arab League covers around 14 million square km and straddles two continents: Asian Middle East and North Africa. The area consists of large arid desert areas (e.g., The Sahara) but ... has several very fertile lands in the Nile Valley and the High Atlas Mountains of North Africa and the fertile crescent stretching from Iraq to Syria Lebanon and Palestine. It also has deep forests in southern Arabia and south Sudan. It has the longest river (The Nile).
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The Arab League, officially the League of Arab States (Jami’at Al-Dawl Al-‘Arabiyah), was founded in Cairo in 1945 in reaction to world events following the end of World War II. The charter members were Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan (then Transjordan), Yemen and a representative of the Palestinian Arabs.
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Convening at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, leaders from 22 Arab countries met on Saturday, March 1, for the 15th summit of the Arab League. The summit was controversial even before it opened, as some Arab leaders signaled they thought the meeting was unnecessary and that the resolution from the League’s March 2002 summit in Beirut voiced sufficiently united opposition to a war on Iraq. The Beirut summit had ... been the scene of astounding conciliatory gestures between representatives of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. Yet it seems that during his trip to Europe in February 2003, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was inspired by France and Germany’s position to organize a unified Arab stance more effectively. He may have also been stung by criticism in the press and on the “Arab street” that European leaders had supplanted Arab leaders in championing Arab causes. In any case, Mubarak returned to Egypt determined to convene a new Arab League summit.
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During the Arab League's annual summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in March, member countries reaffirmed their commitment to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. The league sent two representatives to Israel for the first time to present the plan for regional peace.
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