Arab League Summit Calls for Joint Action on Regional, Global Crises

The 31st Arab League Summit in Algiers – the first such meeting since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – concluded on Wednesday with the adoption of a declaration calling for joint action to tackle regional and global problems. The Algiers Declaration warned that a changing international situation posed risks to Arab national security and stability, and emphasized the rejection of “foreign interference in all its forms in the internal affairs of Arab countries” and a need to  uphold “the principle of Arab solutions to Arab problems by strengthening the role of the League of Arab States in preventing and resolving crises by peaceful means, and working to strengthen Arab-Arab relations.” It also called for cooperation in ensuring food and energy security, battling climate change, and ending the crises in some Arab countries. On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Arab League called for an end to the blockade on the Gaza Strip and reiterated its support for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Arab leaders also said they would make efforts to end the crises in Libya and Syria, expressed their support for Yemen’s government and an extension of the truce in the civil war there, and called for the Middle East to become a zone free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction as part of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.