- Enlargement of the Arab League
The
Arab League was established in1945 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 theGulf states 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 isChad .Israel , with around 20% of its population are native Arabs, remains far from joining the organization, due to its conflicts with its neighbors, and the failure of integrating with its other Middle Eastern Arab neighbors.History of the enlargements
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1942 - TheUnited Kingdom promotes the idea of the Arab League to win its battle againstNazi Germany in the Middle East.
*1945 — Leaders of seven states in theMiddle East sign theAlexandria Protocol , thus establishing the first Organization with a Pan-Arabic ideology in the 20th century. The founding members wereEgypt ,Iraq ,Lebanon ,Syria ,Saudi Arabia ,Jordan (entering under the name ofTransjordan ), andYemen .
*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 andTunisia 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.
*16 August 1962 (fifth enlargement) -Algeria accedes to the League, less than a year after its independence.
*1971 (sixth enlargement) - The largest enlargement with four Arab members joining the League, theUnited Arab Emirates ,Oman ,Qatar andBahrain .
*1973 (seventh enlargement) -Mauritania joins the League after thirteen years of independence.
*1974 (eighth enlargement)-Somalia joins the League after fourteen years of independence.
*1976 (ninth enlargement) - ThePalestine Liberation Organization joins the League.
*1977 (tenth enlargement) -Djibouti joins the Arab League two months before its independence from France that same year.
*1993 (eleventh enlargement) - TheComoros accede to the League.
*January2003 -Eritrea joins the League as an observer.
*September2006 -Venezuela joins the League as an observer.
*April2007 -India joins the League as an observer.
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