Arab Parliament to reconvene

The Arab Parliament will reconvene today, following the re-election of Adel Abdulrahman Al-Asoomi of Bahrain for an additional two-year term as the Speaker of Parliament. The parliament is Arab League’s legislative body, where its 22 member states are represented. This parliamentary session is expected to last for four days and is held at the League’s Cairo headquarters.

The focus will likely be the ongoing economic crisis faced by several of the League’s members, exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Egypt—the world’s largest wheat importer—usually receives a combined 85% of its wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine. The League already sent a delegation to Moscow back in April, urging a diplomatic solution to the war and measures to mitigate its economic impact on Arab nations. In addition, ongoing institutional instabilities and economic crises in Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Yemen will likely find their way onto this session’s agenda.

The outcome of this session will pave the way for the League’s upcoming summit in November, which had been postponed from its original date in March due to the war and concerns related to COVID-19. It will be the first Arab League Summit since the beginning of the global pandemic.