Saturday May 17, 2025
Mogadishu (HOL) – Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is set to attend the 34th Arab League Summit, which opens Saturday in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.
The summit will be held under the theme "Dialogue, Solidarity and Development", highlighting a collective Arab commitment to address regional security threats and urgent humanitarian challenges — most notably, the ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 53,000 people since October 2023.
President Mohamud is expected to deliver a speech during the high-level gathering and hold bilateral meetings with Arab foreign ministers and other participating leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
The Arab foreign ministers, who met last Thursday to finalize the summit's agenda, have prioritized the Palestinian cause, which includes five key items and five proposed initiatives to address the crisis.
Iraq, hosting the summit for the first time in over a decade, aims to use the platform to reinforce Arab cooperation on political, economic, and humanitarian issues. The Iraqi government has emphasized that the Palestinian issue, Arab national security, counterterrorism, and regional development will be at the forefront of the discussions.
In a notable development, Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara'a has withdrawn from attending the summit in person. Instead, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani will represent Damascus, according to a statement from the Syrian presidency.
The summit comes amid increasing fragmentation and political uncertainty across parts of the Arab world, including Somalia, where internal divisions and electoral disputes continue to shape national politics.