29th Arab League summit kicks off in Dhahran

CAIRO – 15 April 2018: The 29th Arab League summit will kick of Sunday with participation of 16 leaders of Arab countries in Dhahran city, eastern Saudi Arabia.

Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Libya are expected to be at the top of summit’s agenda.

UN General Assembly António Guterres , African union commission chairperson Moussa Faki, and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini will attend the summit.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi headed on Saturday to Saudi Arabia to participate in the summit. In his residency in Dammam, Sisi met with head of the Presidential Council of Libya Fayez al-Sarraj, who commended the Egyptian initiatives to unify the Libyan army, namely Egypt’s initiative that kicked off in July 2017 to unify the military institutions.


During their preparatory session on Thursday, Arab foreign ministers set forth several issues to be fully discussed during the summit, especially the latest military escalation in Syria and the raging cold war between Russia and the U.S. regarding allegations of using chemical weapons.

Turkish military interference in Syrian city of Afrin, which was completely condemned during the FM meeting on Thursday, will be tackled. The Arab FMs assured that all of the political and military fronts in Syria should be sticking to the final findings of the Geneva talks.

As for Palestine, the Arab stance of supporting the Arabism of Jerusalem unchangeable, FMs said.


Libya, as usual, comes on the summit’s agenda due to its successive political escalations and occasional stumbling. The country, which has suffered from Islamic State militants, has been preparing to hold its first legislative and presidential elections by mid-2018. The Arab FMs also expressed their commitment to the unity of Libya’s territories and military factions.

Meanwhile, Yemen, Lebanon and Iran are surely to be included during the upcoming summit as well.

During their meeting on April 12, Arab ministers agreed on proposing a resolution concerning the impact that Iranian interference has on Arab national security.

All kinds of terrorist acts and violence were condemned during the preparatory session and will be condemned again in the final statement of the 29th Arab League summit.