Arab Nations Unite: The League Founded in Cairo

Seven Arab states signed the Charter of the Arab League in Cairo on March 22, 1945, establishing the first formal regional organization in the Middle East. The founding members were Egypt, Iraq, Jordan (then Transjordan), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. The charter was signed at the Zaafaran Palace and took effect the following day. The League emerged from wartime discussions organized by the British government, which saw a pan-Arab organization as a vehicle for maintaining British influence in the region as the colonial era wound down. Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, publicly endorsed the idea of Arab unity in 1943. But the resulting organization reflected the interests and rivalries of its member states more than British designs. The charter established a framework for coordinating economic, cultural, and political policies among member states while explicitly preserving the sovereignty of each. This emphasis on sovereignty rather than integration became the League's defining characteristic and, critics argued, its fundamental weakness. Unlike the European Economic Community, which gradually pooled sovereignty, the Arab League maintained a strict commitment to non-interference in members' internal affairs. The League's early years were dominated by the Palestine question. When Britain withdrew from its Palestine mandate in May 1948, five Arab League members sent armies to prevent the establishment of Israel. The armies were poorly coordinated, pursued conflicting national objectives, and were defeated. The failure in Palestine exposed the gap between the League's rhetoric of unity and the reality of Arab state rivalries. Over subsequent decades, the League grew to 22 member states and attempted to coordinate responses to regional crises including the Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War, the Camp David Accords, and the Gulf Wars. Its effectiveness was repeatedly undermined by divisions between members. Egypt was suspended after signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and readmitted a decade later. The League's headquarters, originally in Cairo, were temporarily moved to Tunis during Egypt's suspension before returning.