Arab League Reform Requirements Fizzle Out Again

As expected, the 29th session of the League of Arab States wound up without any reference to the demanded reforms of this body, which Algeria and several other Arab countries have strenuously advocated over recent years.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Abdelkader Messahel, preceded the Dhahran summit meeting by calling for the revamping of the Arab League system, so as to be able to address the challenges now facing the Arab region, a demand that has been repeated on more than one occasion and by more than one party.
“Algeria highlights the imperious need to carry out deep reforms within our Arab system so that it can adapt to the current situation regionally and internationally, and find Arab solutions to its differences and crises so as not to see solutions being imposed on them from abroad,” Mr. Messahel said.
Algeria is committed to reforming the mechanisms of the Arab League’s work and the mechanisms of decision-making and reviewing the way it works. This can only be achieved through “substantial reform,” underscored Mr. Messahel in an interview with the Saudi Riyadh daily newspaper.
The most pressing demand in this regard is the one raised by Algeria in the words of its former Foreign Minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, during the Arab summit held in in Algiers in 2005, concerning the rotation of the post of Secretary-General of the Arab League, but this request has not received a positive response from the Member States.
Among the demands raised was the introduction of a voting system similar to that adopted by the United Nations, such as the granting of veto power to some of the major states in the League, such as Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia regarding major decisions and regulations, instead of voting by majority vote.
The final declaration of the “Dhahran Summit” addressed all the problems and concerns facing the Arab region and the member states of the League such as the Comoros and Somalia issues, but did not address the demands of reform, which is still pending.
The reformers of the Arab League have intended to introduce the overhauling of the League’s mechanisms, especially the system of voting by consensus, a mechanism that impedes the embodiment of any such project, in the presence of parties rejecting these demands, led by certain influential member countries of the Arab League.