| Arab League Enlargements |
1945-founding members: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen
1958 – Third Enlargement: Morocco, Tunisia
1971 – Sixth Enlargement: UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar
1993- Eleventh Enlargement: Comoros
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The Arab League was established in 1945 with 7 founding states, with Egypt at the helm 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 Arab states of the Persian Gulf joining the League.
Future enlargements are not clear now, with only three Arabic Speaking countries remaining out of the League. Of these, only Eritrea is an observer, and is the most possible next candidate for the Arab League's next enlargement, it needs to improve its relations with other neighboring Arabs states, including Djibouti, Sudan and Somalia. Another possible member is Chad. Israel, with around 20% of its population are native Arabs, is extremely unlikely to join the organisation in the near future, given the Arab League's boycott of Israel over the Arab–Israeli conflict, and the lack of diplomatic relations between Israel and the majority of Arab League member states.
[edit] History of the enlargements
- 1942 - The United Kingdom promotes the idea of the Arab League to win its battle against Nazi Germany in the Middle East.
- 1945 — Leaders of seven states in the Middle East sign the Alexandria Protocol, thus establishing the first Organization with a Pan-Arabic ideology in the 20th century. The founding members were Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan (entering under the name of Transjordan), and Yemen(entering under the name North Yemen).
- 1953 (first enlargement) — Libya joins the Arab League after two years of independence.
- 1956 (second enlargement) — Sudan joins the League, two weeks after its independence from the UK and Egypt.
- 1 October 1958 (third enlargement) - Morocco and Tunisia join the League, two years after independence.
- 1961 (fourth enlargement) - Kuwait joins the League after 31 days of independence, and becomes the first Asian state to join the League after the founding nations.
- 1967 (sixth enlargement) South Yemen joins the League upon its independence.
- 16 August 1962 (fifth enlargement) - Algeria accedes to the League, less than a year after its independence.
- 1971 (seventh enlargement) - The largest enlargement with four Arab members joining the League, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.
- 1973 (eighth enlargement) - Mauritania joins the League after thirteen years of independence.
- 1974 (ninth enlargement)- Somalia joins the League after fourteen years of independence.
- 1976 (tenth enlargement) - The Palestine Liberation Organization joins the League.
- 1977 (eleventh enlargement) - Djibouti joins the Arab League two months before its independence from France that same year.
- 1993 (twelfth enlargement) - The Comoros accede to the League.
- January 2003 - Eritrea joins the League as an observer.
- September 2006 - Venezuela joins the League as an observer.
- April 2007 - India joins the League as an observer.
[edit] See also
