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Arab Summit Faces Regional Crises... Can it Offer Permanent or Temporary Solutions?

Family photo of Arab leaders during the Tunisia 2019 Arab Summit. (Egyptian Presidency)
Family photo of Arab leaders during the Tunisia 2019 Arab Summit. (Egyptian Presidency)
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Arab Summit Faces Regional Crises... Can it Offer Permanent or Temporary Solutions?

Family photo of Arab leaders during the Tunisia 2019 Arab Summit. (Egyptian Presidency)
Family photo of Arab leaders during the Tunisia 2019 Arab Summit. (Egyptian Presidency)

The current crises in the Arab region have raised questions whether the upcoming Arab summit in Algeria will be able to reach solutions, even if temporary, to them.

Arab officials have stressed that their countries are facing “major challenges” and that the “reunion” summit is being held in “difficult circumstances”.

Algeria is still sending out invitations to the 31st regular Arab League summit set for November 1 and 2.

Algerian newspaper Echorouk said President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has so far sent invitations to 16 Arab leaders, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Mauritania, Iraq, Djibouti, Sudan, Lebanon, and Libya.

The Algerian newspaper, L'Expression, confirmed in its editorial Tuesday that doubts about holding the summit on time have dissipated.

The daily indicated that the summit would witness significant representation, as the majority of the leaders have confirmed their attendance, noting that the first day of the conference coincides with the anniversary of the Algerian Revolution.

Over the past weeks, the Arab summit has been the subject of debate, with many issues seen as obstacles to convening the meeting on time.

Arab League Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit set the debate to rest by declaring to the press that it was finally agreed to hold the summit in Algeria, underscoring its importance, especially after three years of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He denied claims that the summit will be postponed or held in another country, revealing that Syria has chosen to skip this year's conference.

The reinstatement of Syria’s membership in the Arab League was one of the points of contention ahead of the summit. Algeria had insisted on restoring it to the organization, but its calls have been met with a tepid reception.

The summit has already been postponed before.

The last time the League held a regular in person summit was in Tunisia in 2019.

In past remarks, Aboul Gheit highlighted the challenges facing the Arab world. He remarked that the war in Syria is unlikely to be resolved any time soon, Iraq is still without a government despite having held elections months ago, and the Libyan capital Tripoli has witnessed renewed clashes between rival militias.

Algeria wants the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to be at the heart of discussions at the summit. Palestinian Ambassador to Algeria Fayez Abu Aita described the event as "exceptional" because it seeks to bring serious outcomes that restore balance to the Arab region.

The ambassador said in statements carried by the Algerian news agency that Palestinians are looking forward to the summit and highly commend Algerian diplomacy and its support to the Palestinian cause.

Expert at the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Said Okasha believes results of previous Arab summits make it difficult to expect any permanent or temporary solutions to the region's problems during this year's conference.

Okasha told Asharq Al-Awsat that many Arab nations have changed their view on national security, basing it on the safety of each state separately, with the possibility of interacting with other countries with common interests in mind.

He indicated that Arab countries are facing different sources of threat, such as terrorism, internal crises, economic challenges, and others, which they view as a priority over joint Arab action.

Algerian journalist and political analyst Nouredine Khettal noted it was difficult for the summit to succeed in resolving Arab issues for two possible reasons.

The first is the extent of the problems across the region, stretching from Iraq to Morocco. The second is the growing strength of the enemies of Arabism in several Arab countries. Such movements work on impeding all intra-Arab efforts, he remarked.

Khettal told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Arab summit is an opportunity to clear the air, adding that bridging the gap and resolving intra-Arab disputes is difficult, but possible.

He recalled the successful efforts to resolve the dispute between Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Qatar, citing the recent visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Doha after years of differences.

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Numbers That Matter from the First 100 Days of Trump’s Second Term

US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
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Numbers That Matter from the First 100 Days of Trump’s Second Term

US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump looks on, on the day he welcomes the Super Bowl LIX winner, NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2025. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump's first 100 days back in the White House have been a demolition job — and that's a point of pride for his administration.

For the Republican administration, the raw numbers on executive actions, deportations, reductions in the federal workforce, increased tariff rates and other issues point toward a renewed America. To Trump's critics, though, he's wielding his authority in ways that challenge the Constitution's separation of powers and pose the risk of triggering a recession.

From executive orders to deportations, some defining numbers from Trump’s first 100 days:

Roughly 140 executive orders In just 100 days, Trump has nearly matched the number of executive orders that his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, signed during the previous four years, 162. Trump, at roughly 140, is essentially moving at a pace not seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, when the Great Depression necessitated urgent action.

But the number alone fails to capture the unprecedented scope of Trump's actions. Without seeking congressional approval, Trump has used his orders and directives to impose hundreds of billions of dollars annually in new import taxes and reshape the federal bureaucracy by enabling mass layoffs.

John Woolley, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-director of the American Presidency Project, sees "very aggressive assertions of presidential authority in all kinds of ways" that are far more audacious than anything done by former presidents. That includes Biden's student debt forgiveness program and Barack Obama's decision to allow residency for immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children.

"None of those had the kind of arbitrary, forceful quality of Trump’s actions," Woolley said.

145% tariff rate on China Trump's tariff agenda has unnerved the global economy. He's gone after the two biggest US trade partners, Mexico and Canada, with tariffs of as much as 25% for fentanyl trafficking. He's put import taxes on autos, steel and aluminum. On his April 2 "Liberation Day," he slapped tariffs on dozens of countries that were so high that the financial markets panicked, causing him to pull back and set a 10% baseline tax on imports instead to allow 90 days of negotiations on trade deals.

But that pales in comparison to the 145% tariff he placed on China, which prompted China to fight back with a 125% tax on US goods. There are exemptions to the US tariffs for electronics. But inflationary pressures and recession fears are both rising as a trade war between the world's two largest economies could spiral out of control in dangerous ways.

The US president has said that China has been talking with his administration, but he's kept his description of the conversations vague. The Chinese government says no trade negotiations of any kind are underway. Trump is banking on the tariffs raising enough revenue for him to cut taxes, even as he simultaneously talks up the prospect of an agreement.

So far, despite the economic risks, the Trump team shows little desire to budge, even as the president claims a deal with China will eventually happen.

"I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday.

More than 10,000 square miles of Crimea Trump said during his presidential campaign that he could quickly defuse the Russian-started war in Ukraine. But European allies and others say the US president's statements about how to end the war reflect a troubling affinity for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trump's peace proposal says that Ukraine must recognize Russian authority over the more than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) of the Crimean Peninsula. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy rejected the idea out of hand: "There is nothing to talk about — it is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people."

Russia annexed the area in 2014 when Obama was president, and Trump says he's simply being realistic about its future.

The four meetings that Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, has had with Putin have yet to produce a trustworthy framework for the deal that Trump wants to deliver.

After recent Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, Trump posted on social media that perhaps Putin "doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along."

Over 2,000 more Palestinians in Gaza dead Trump was eager to take credit for an "epic ceasefire" agreement in the Israel-Hamas war in order to restart the release of hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But the ceasefire ended in March, and more than 2,000 Palestinians have died since the temporary truce collapsed. Palestinian officials have put the total number of deaths above 52,200. Food, fuel and medicine have not entered the Gaza Strip for almost 60 days.

Trump said in February that he would remove the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and relocate them elsewhere, suggesting that the United States could take over the area, level the destroyed buildings and construct a luxurious "Riviera of the Middle East."

Roughly 280,000 federal job losses The Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire and adviser Elon Musk, is dramatically shrinking the government workforce. Across all agencies, there have been about 60,000 firings, including at the IRS, which might make it harder to collect taxes and reduce the budget deficit. Another 75,000 federal workers accepted administration buyout offers. And the Trump administration has floated at least another 145,000 job cuts.

Those estimated job losses don't include the possible layoffs and hiring freezes at nonprofits, government contractors and universities that had their federal funding frozen by the Trump administration.

The federal government had about 3 million federal employees, including at the US Postal Service, when Trump became president, according to the Labor Department.

139,000 deportations The Trump administration says it has deported 139,000 people who were in the United States without proper legal authority. Trump’s first months also have produced a sharp drop in crossings at the Southwest border, with Border Patrol tracking 7,181 encounters in March, down from 137,473 the same month last year.

Deportations have occasionally lagged behind Biden’s numbers, but Trump officials reject the comparison as not "apples to apples" because fewer people are crossing the border now.

The administration maintains that it's getting rid of violent and dangerous criminals. But many migrants who assert their innocence have been deported without due process.

In April, the Supreme Court directed the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return to the US of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador citizen who was deported to his home country. Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland and had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs. So far, Abrego Garcia remains held in a Salvadoran prison.

Trump said last week that he won the presidential election on the promise of deportations and that the courts are interfering with his efforts.

"We’re getting them out, and a judge can say, ‘No, you have to have a trial,’" Trump said. "The trial's going to take two years, and now we’re going to have a very dangerous country if we’re not allowed to do what we’re entitled to do."