The Arab League, formally the League of Arab States, was founded on 22 March 1945 in Cairo by six original member states, Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria, with Yemen joining within the same year, as a regional organization intended to strengthen political, economic, cultural and social ties among Arab countries and to coordinate their positions on common concerns. Headquartered in Cairo for most of its history, the League relocated its headquarters to Tunis between 1979 and 1990 after Egypt was suspended from the organization over its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, returning to Cairo once Egypt's membership was restored. Over the decades the League grew from its six founders to twenty-two member states spanning North Africa and the Middle East, and it has played a recurring role in coordinating Arab diplomatic positions on regional conflicts, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, while also sponsoring cultural, economic and educational cooperation initiatives among its members. Despite periodic internal divisions and suspensions of individual member states over political crises, the League has remained the principal standing forum for collective Arab intergovernmental cooperation since its founding.
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