Algeria denies reports that Arab League summit postponed

Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra denied on Saturday that his government was planning to postpone an upcoming Arab League summit this spring.

Lamamra was responding to reports that had circulated in the past few days claiming the summit would be delayed due to Covid-19. He added that no date had even been set.

The minister made the clarifications as he met with Arab state ambassadors at the foreign ministry in Algiers.

"The president intends to propose a date that is both symbolic to [Algerian] national history and pan-Arab nationalism, and enshrines the values of common Arab struggle and solidarity," he said, adding that a meeting of Arab ministers in March will confirm the date.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki had previously said the upcoming summit could not be held before Ramadan, which is expected to begin in early April. The summit was scheduled to take place around late March.

At the end of his visit to Algeria earlier this week, Zaki said the Algerian president and Arab League secretary-general would discuss the best possible date, to guarantee the best attendance of Arab leaders in light of the difficult circumstances surrounding Covid-19.

Syria, represented by President Bashar al-Assad, whose membership in the league was suspended at the onset of the war in his country and his regime’s brutal suppression of protests in March 2011, will most likely be present at the summit.

It comes amid rapprochement between Damascus and a number of Arab countries, including Algeria – which kept ties with Syria throughout the decade-old conflict – Jordan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.