Arab leaders met in Algeria on Tuesday at the 31st summit of the largest annual Arab conference to seek common ground on divisive issues in the region.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of rising inflation, food and energy shortages, drought and soaring cost of living across the Middle East and Africa.
The event provides an opportunity for Algeria — Africa’s largest country by territory — to showcase its leadership in the Arab world. Algeria is a major oil and gas producer and is perceived by European nations as a key supplier amid the global energy crisis that stems from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The 22-member Arab League last held its summit in 2019, before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In the years since, new challenges have drastically reshaped the region’s agenda — the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and four Arab countries, as well as the fallout of the war in Ukraine.
The summit’s discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday focus on the food and energy crises aggravated by the war that has had devastating consequences for Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia, among other Arab countries, struggling to import enough wheat and fuel to satisfy their populations.
Deepening the crisis is the worst drought in several decades that has ravaged swaths of Somalia, one of the Arab League’s newer members, bringing some areas of the country to the brink of famine.
Russia’s reinforcement of its blockade on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Sunday threatens to further escalate the crisis, with many Arab countries near solely dependent on Ukrainian and Russian wheat exports.
The dependency has prompted the summit’s host to find “a common mechanism to ensure the Arab food security”, according to Adam Ahmed el-Dekhairi, the director general of the Arab Organisation of Agricultural Development.
The war has become a point of rare unity among Arab League members, with nearly all adopting a stance of neutrality.
Other issues are likely to remain more divisive. The series of normalisation agreements the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco signed with Israel over the past three years have divided the region. Sudan has also agreed to establish ties with Israel.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman formally announced earlier this month that he will not attend the summit due to “health reasons”.
Other Gulf Arab leaders attending include Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai.
Syria is also absent from this year’s summit, having been expelled from the league in 2011 as punishment for President Bashir Assad’s government crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Over the past year, Algeria has been openly campaigning for Syria’s reintegration into the league, but several Gulf Arab states have opposed the move.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a guest of honour at the summit, was addressing the Arab leaders during the opening session later on Tuesday.
