Enlargement of the Arab League

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arab League Enlargements


1945-founding members: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria



1945- First Enlargement: Libya



1956 – Second Enlargement: Sudan



1958 – Third Enlargement: Morocco, Tunisia



1961 – Fourth Enlargement: Kuwait



1962 – Fifth Enlargement: Algeria



1971 – Sixth Enlargement: UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar



1973- Seventh Enlargement: Mauritania



1974- Eighth Enlargement: Somalia



1976- Ninth Enlargement: Palestinian Authority-Palestine



1973- Tenth Enlargement: Djibouti



1973- Eleventh Enlargement: Comoros

The Arab League was established in 1945 with 7 Founding states, all 7 states have major influence in the Arab World, today the League has 22 members. The League witnessed 11 enlargements, with the largest in 1971 with four members of the Gulf states joining the League.

Future enlargements are not clear now, with only three Arabic Speaking Countries remaining out of the League, only Eritrea is an observer. other possible members are Chad and Western Sahara.

[edit] History of the Arab League Enlargements

This contains past and future enlargements to the Arab League

  • 1942 - United Kingdom promotes for the idea of the Arab League to win its battle against Germans in the Middle East.
  • 1945 — Leaders of 7 states in the Middle East signed the Alexandria Protocol, thus establishing the first Organization with a Pan-Arabism Ideology in the 20th century. the founding members included, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan entering under the name of Transjordan and Yemen.
  • 1953 (First Enlargement) — Libya joins the Arab League after 6 years of its independence from Italy in 1947, this Enlargement is considered the First Enlargement of the Arab League adding an area of 1,759,540 km² to the League.
  • 1956(Second Enlargement) — Sudan Joins the League only 2 weeks after its independence from Britain, declaring The Arabism of the Sudan.
  • 1 October 1958 (Third Enlargement) - Morocco and Tunisia Succededs in claiming a seet in the Arab League Headquarters and become official members.
  • 1961(Fourth Enlargement)- Kuwait joins the Arab League after 31 days of independence, and becomes the first Asian State to join the League after the founding nations.
  • 16 August 1962 (Fifth Enlargement)- Algeria accedes the AL after less than a year of its 200 years colonial era from France.
  • 1971 (Sixth Enlargement) - Considered the largest AL Enlargement with 4 Arab members joining the League, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, making the Arabs of Asia all members of the League, excluding the PA.
  • 1973 (Seventh Enlargement)- Mauritania Joins the League after 13 years of independence.
  • 1974 (Eighth Enlargement)-Somalia joins The Arab League.
  • 1976 (Ninth Enlargement) - succeeding to the position held by the Palestine Liberation Organization since September 9.
  • 1977 (Tenth Enlargement) - Djibouti joins the Arab League two months before its independence date from France that same year.
  • 1993 (Eleventh Enlargement) - Comoros accedes the League making it the member number 22.
  • In January 2003, Eritrea joined the Arab League as an observer.