Arab League Members in 2026: Full Map, History and Suspensions

The Arab League — formally the League of Arab States, in Arabic Jami’at ad-Duwal al-‘Arabiyya — is a regional organization of 22 member states stretching from Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to Oman on the Arabian Sea. Founded in Cairo on March 22, 1945, it remains the oldest continuously functioning Arab political bloc, and in May 2023 it readmitted Syria after a 12-year suspension, returning the membership roster to its full historic count.

Map of Arab League Members in 2026

The map below shows all 22 current member states, color-coded by the decade each country joined. Founding signatories are shown in deep navy, the post-independence wave of the 1950s–70s in mid-green, the late 1970s–early 1990s additions in lighter green, and Syria — readmitted in 2023 after a 12-year suspension — in amber.

The 1945 Founding Pact

The Arab League’s roots trace back to the Alexandria Protocol, signed on October 7, 1944 by representatives of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan and Saudi Arabia. The protocol set out the framework for a “League of Arab States,” and just over five months later — on March 22, 1945 — six founding members signed the Pact of the League of Arab States in Cairo: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949). Yemen acceded six weeks later, on May 5, 1945, and is usually counted alongside the original six.

The pact’s stated goals were political, economic, cultural and social cooperation among the member states, plus the safeguarding of their independence and sovereignty. It explicitly rejected the use of force to resolve disputes between members, and required unanimity for binding decisions on issues of war and peace — a procedural feature that has shaped (and frequently constrained) the League’s diplomacy ever since.

Full List of Arab League Members

The 22 current members, grouped by region and listed with their year of accession:

Comoros — admitted in 1993 — remains the only Arab League member that does not border another Arab state, and its accession brought the membership to its present-day count of 22. The League’s potential 23rd seat, Eritrea, has held observer status since 2003 but has never formally joined.

Suspensions: When Members Have Been Sidelined

In its 80-year history, the Arab League has formally suspended a member state on only three occasions — Egypt, Libya and Syria — and has eventually reinstated each one. Each suspension was triggered by a defining political moment in the modern Arab world.

🇪🇬 Egypt (1979–1989)

Egypt — a founding member and the host of the League’s headquarters since 1945 — was suspended in March 1979 after President Anwar Sadat signed the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, the diplomatic outcome of the 1978 Camp David Accords. In the same vote, the League moved its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis, where it operated for the next decade. Egypt was readmitted at the May 1989 Casablanca summit, and the headquarters returned to Cairo in 1990.

🇱🇾 Libya (February–August 2011)

Libya’s suspension was the shortest. On February 22, 2011 — barely a week into the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi — the League suspended Libya’s representation in response to the Gaddafi government’s violent crackdown on protesters. Libya’s seat was reinstated on August 27, 2011, given to Libya’s National Transitional Council after rebel forces took control of Tripoli.

🇸🇾 Syria (2011–2023)

Syria — also a founding member — was suspended on November 16, 2011 over the Assad government’s repression of early Syrian Civil War protests. The seat sat empty for nearly 12 years until May 7, 2023, when Arab foreign ministers voted 13-6 in Cairo to readmit Syria, ending the longest suspension in League history. Twelve days later, Bashar al-Assad attended the Jeddah summit in person — his first Arab League summit in over a decade.

The political ground shifted again in December 2024, when Assad’s government collapsed after a rapid HTS-led offensive. Syria’s Arab League seat is now held by the transitional government formed on March 29, 2025 under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani attended his first ministerial council meeting in Cairo in April 2025, signalling continued — if politically transformed — Syrian engagement with the bloc.

Geographic Reach and Population

Together, the 22 member states cover an area of roughly 13.1 million km² — making the Arab League’s combined territory larger than the European Union, China or the contiguous United States. Combined population is approximately 475 million people as of 2024 estimates, more than the European Union and on par with the entire population of South America.

Egypt remains the most populous member at over 110 million, followed by Sudan, Algeria, Iraq and Morocco — each above 40 million. At the other end, Comoros and Djibouti each have under one million inhabitants. Saudi Arabia is the largest by area, while Bahrain — at just 760 km² — is the smallest.

How the Arab League Is Structured

The League’s principal decision-making body is the Council of the Arab League, where each member state holds a single vote and meets at the level of foreign ministers (or, at periodic summits, at the level of heads of state). Decisions on most matters are non-binding unless taken unanimously.

The administrative arm is the General Secretariat, headquartered in Cairo and led by the Secretary-General. The current incumbent, Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has held the post since July 2016 and was reappointed in March 2021 for a second five-year term. His successor, fellow Egyptian diplomat Nabil Fahmy, takes office on July 1, 2026.

The League also operates specialized agencies covering economic affairs, education and culture (ALECSO), industrial development (AIDMO), and broadcasting (ASBU), and it convenes the Joint Defence Council and Economic and Social Council under the framework of the 1950 Joint Defence and Economic Cooperation Treaty.

Observer States

Five non-Arab states hold observer status at the Arab League — they may attend sessions but do not vote. They are Brazil, Eritrea, India, Turkey and Venezuela. Eritrea is the only one of these that geographically borders the Arab world, and discussion of upgrading its status to full membership has surfaced periodically since 2003.