STATISTICS & DATES: Arab Summits

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Since it was first established on March 22, 1945, the Cairo-based Arab League has seen Arab leaders convening 36 summits – 22 regular meetings and 14 extraordinary ones dictated by developments.Aswat al-Iraq news agency is giving some statistics and history of the Arab summits on the occasion of Baghdad’s hosting of an Arab summit on March 29.

Egypt is record host of Arab summits, followed by Morocco

Egypt, whose capital Cairo was the permanent headquarters of the pan-Arab organization since its establishment except the period between 1978 and 1989, when the headquarters moved to the Tunisian capital Tunis after Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel that was rejected by the majority of Arab countries, has hosted a record 10 summits.

Egypt has hosted a summit in Inshas in 1946, two summits in Cairo and Alexandria in 1964, one in Cairo in 1970, Cairo in 1976, Cairo in 1990, Cairo in 1991, Cairo in 1996, Cairo in 2000, Sharm el-Sheikh in 2003.

Egypt was followed by Morocco as a host of Arab summits, convening it in 1960 in Casablanca, 1969 in Rabat, 1974 in Rabat, 1981 in Fez, 1982 in Fez, 1985 in Casablanca and 1989 in Casablanca.

Algeria and Jordan are hosts for three times

Algeria’s capital Algiers hosted three summits in 1973, 1988 and 2005 while the Jordanian capital Amman was host three times in 1980, 1987 and 2001.

Five states, including Iraq, hosted summits two times

Hosting the summit two times were five Arab countries – Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Tunisia.

Beirut hosted the Arab summit two times in 1956 and 2002, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh in 1976 and 2007, Iraq’s Baghdad in 1987 and 1990 and Tunisia’s Tunis in 1979 and 2004.

The Sudanese capital Khartoum hosted two summits, one in 1967, known as the Three No’s Summit (No to reconciliation with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel), and 2006.

After Iraq will host Baghdad’s summit late this month it will go up the ladder with the three-time hosts category, along with Algeria and Jordan.

One-time hosts of Arab summits

Syria, Libya and Qatar hosted Arab summits for only once as Damascus hosted a 2008 summit, Doha in 2009 and the Libyan city of Sirte hosted the last summit in 2010.

Summits Iraq was absent from

Iraq, one of the five founders of the Arab League, was absent from several summits as its membership was suspended in 1990 after the former Iraqi regime invaded in Kuwait in the same year.
Iraq was also prohibited from participation in five successive summit meetings – Cairo in August 1991, Cairo in June 1996, Cairo in October 2000, Amman in March 2001 and Beirut in March 2002.

Iraq later attended Arab summits regularly as of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt on March 1, 2003, the same month that saw the third Gulf War that culminated in the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime erupting.
Leading the Iraqi delegation during that summit, the last Iraq has attended under the former regime, was Izzat al-Dori, Deputy Chairman of the now-dissolved Revolutionary Command Council.

Iraq later attended the Arab summit in Tunis in 2004 with a delegation led by Nusseir al-Djadirji, a member of the transitional council then.

9 summits outside capital cities but this time Casablanca is in the lead

Nine cities that are not capital cities of their states hosted Arab summits.
These nine cities are only in three countries – Egypt, Morocco and Libya.

Casablanca, the Kingdom of Morocco’s economic capital city, hosted three summits in 1965, 1985 and 1989.
Egypt’s Alexandria and Morocco’s Fez were even as Alexandria hosted the first constituent summit in 1946 and 1964, Fez in 1981 and 1982 while Libya’s Sirte hosted the 2010 meeting.

Ten Arab states have not hosted summits so far

The Arab summits have not been convened at all in 10 Arab nations – the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, the Sultanate of Oman, Somalia, Palestine, Kuwait, Mauritania and Yemen.

Nine summits held in March, seven in November

The spring month of March was the month with the largest number of summits, seeing the convening of nine summits and becoming the favorite month to hold Arab summits since the Amman summit in 2001.

Seven summits were held in November, five in September, four in May, four in August, three in June, one in December and one in January.

AmR (TF)

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