An organization of Arab states, founded in Cairo, Egypt in 1945. The principal aims of the League are to protect the independence and sovereignty of its members and to strengthen the ties between them by encouraging cooperation in different fields. Opposition to the state of Israel and the demand for the establishment of a Palestinian state have been central to the policies of the League. In 1989 a mediation committee consisting of three of the members of the Arab League helped to negotiate a ceasefire in Lebanon. In 1990 the League narrowly approved a proposal to dispatch Arab forces to support the US‐led coalition against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, but the conflict exposed serious divisions among members. The League supported the peace accord between Israel and the PLO (1993) but decided to uphold the boycott of Israel until it withdrew from all the occupied territories. It strongly opposed the 2003 Iraq War. Following the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, it supported the UN-backed intervention against Gaddafi in Libya and suspended Syria’s membership. Its monitoring mission to Syria failed to gain support from either side of the conflict. In 2015 it called for the establishment of a Joint Arab Force that members could call upon for security assistance.