Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Arab Summit
The Arab Summit refers to special meetings of the Arab League which have been held Since 1964. The Heads of the Arab states have been meeting, irregularly, at the top level, particularly at times of crisis in the Arab World. These meetings have been in addition to the regular biannual sessions of the Arab League Council, held at the level of Foreign Ministers or Permanent Representatives.
The resort to this forum came after a period of declining prestige and inefficacy of the Arab League, due to deep divisions and even violent conflicts. In the mid-1960`s these culiminated in Egypt`s military involvement in the Yemen War, and President Abdel Nasser`s efforts to impose his hegemony on other Arab ruling elites in the name of his revolutionary Pan-Arab nationalism. Ever since, the Arab Summit has been more or less institutionalized as the means of for the Arab Nations to manage crises. See Arab League.