ALGIERS (AP) – Arab leaders convened on Wednesday in Algeria for the second day of the 31st summit of the largest annual Arab conference, seeking common ground on several divisive issues in the region. The meeting came against the backdrop of rising inflation, food and energy shortages, drought and soaring cost of living across the Middle East and Africa.
The kings, emirs, presidents and prime ministers discussed thorny issues such as the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Zionist regime and four Arab countries as former Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies appeared to be heading to an election victory.
The summit’s discussions focused on the food and energy crises aggravated by the war in Ukraine that has had devastating consequences for Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia, among other Arab countries, struggling to import enough wheat and fuel to satisfy their populations.
Deepening the crisis is the worst drought in several decades that has ravaged swaths of Somalia, one of the Arab League’s newer members, bringing some areas of the country to the brink of famine.
The event provided an opportunity for Algeria — Africa’s largest country by territory — to showcase its leadership in the Arab world. Algeria is a major oil and gas producer and is perceived as a key supplier amid the global energy crisis that stems from the war in Ukraine.
Algeria, along with other Arab countries, remains fiercely opposed to the series of normalization agreements the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco signed with the Zionist regime over the past three years have divided the region into two camps. Sudan has also agreed to establish ties with the regime.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune vowed in his opening speech Tuesday to put forth considerable efforts at the summit to try to reaffirm support for the Palestinians in their conflict with the occupying regime as the Arab and international communities’ attention shifts to other conflicts and crises.
“Our main and first cause, the mother of all causes, the Palestinian issue, will be at the heart of our concerns and our main priority,” Tebboune said. He blasted the Zionist regime for its “continued occupation” of Palestinian territories and “expanding its illegal settlements.”
The Arab summit came at the time of heightened tensions in the West Bank, where the Zionist regime’s military has conducted nightly arrest raids in searches for Palestinian militants. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent months.