Cairo: Arab leaders are set to meet in Riyadh on April 15, Arab League chief Ahmad Abu Al Geit told reporters in Cairo on Tuesday.
The Arab League’s general secretariat received “an official notification” from Saudi Arabia to confirm the meeting, Abu Al Geit told reporters at the organisation’s headquarters in Cairo.
The summit was originally slated for the end of March, its usual annual date.
But Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Cairo and delegate to the Arab League Ahmad Qattan said earlier this month the timing needed to change to accommodate Egypt’s March 26-28 presidential elections.
Last year’s annual summit was held in Jordan on March 29, with the participation of the 22 member states except for Syria, whose membership has been suspended since the advent of the Syrian war in 2011.
In the Riyadh summit, Arab states will seek to prevent Israel from gaining a rotating seat on the UN Security Council. Winning a Security Council seat requires a two-thirds majority in the 193-nation General Assembly. Candidates are proposed by the five regional groups but election to the council is voted on by the full assembly.
