The 34th Arab League Summit opened on May 17 in Baghdad. This is an important event and symbolizes major changes in the region. The reports in Iraq note that the summit seeks to focus on many regional issues,

BAGHDAD (AP) — Regional leaders were to meet in Baghdad on Saturday at the annual summit of the Arab League, with the war in Gaza expected to once again loom large. In March, at an emergency summit in Cairo, Arab leaders endorsed a proposed plan for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip without displacing its roughly 2 million residents.

“This summit will be successful by all standards,” Ihsan Ali, a diplomat at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Media Line. “Simply accepting Baghdad as host of the Arab Summit, and the attendance of several heads of state, will be a positive development for Iraq, which is deeply connected to its Arab surroundings.”