The Arab League

The Arab League pledged military support on Tuesday to help Libya's internationally recognised government fight Islamic State, but did not publicly agree to a request for air strikes. On Saturday, Libya's official government, based in the east of the country after a rival group pushed it out of the capital last year, asked fellow Arab States to conduct air strikes against the Islamic State in the central city of Sirte where the hardline Islamists crushed rival fighters.

The Arab League is an organization that consists of independent Arab States on the territory of northern and north-eastern part of Africa and southwest Asia. It is a voluntary association of countries whose peoples are mainly Arabic speaking or where Arabic is an official language. It has 22 members including Palestine, which the League regards as an independent state.

The idea of the Arab League was mooted in 1942 by the British, who wanted to rally Arab countries against the Axis powers. However, the league did not take off until March 1945, just before the end of World War II. The council meets twice a year, in March and September, and may convene a special session at the request of two members.

The Present Secretary-General of the League is Nabil el-Arabi who was elected secretary-general of the Arab League in May 2011, succeeding fellow-Egyptian Amr Moussa. He took office in July. The Arab League's effectiveness has been severely hampered by divisions among member-states.

For example, during the Cold War some members were Soviet-oriented while others fell within the Western camp. There has been rivalry over leadership, notably between Egypt and Iraq. Then there have been the hostilities between traditional monarchies - such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco - and new republics, or "revolutionary" states such as Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Baathist Syria and Iraq, and Libya under Muammar Gaddafi.

The league was severely tested by the US-led attack on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, with some backing the war, some opposing it and others standing on the sidelines. Perhaps the sole exception has been the economic boycott of Israel, which between 1948 and 1993 was almost total.

The League backed UN action against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya. It also suspended Syria over its repressions of nationwide protests, but it is divided over action against the Assad government as some oppose "internationalising" an Arab matter.