
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 12, 1990                   TAG: 9003122756
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: CAIRO, EGYPT                                 LENGTH: Short

ARAB LEAGUE MOVING BACK TO CAIRO

The Arab League agreed in principle on Sunday to move its headquarters back here, in the high point of a two-year campaign by Egypt for full rehabilitation in the Arab world.

The Arab League, which represents 21 Arab nations, transferred its headquarters to Tunis in 1979 because of Egypt's peace with Israel.

The move was agreed on by Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Tunis and is to be ratified later this year. It means that for the first time the Arab world's central political institution will lie in a city that also has an Israeli embassy.

Arab diplomats said the decision represented a symbolic acknowledgement of Egypt's renewed prominence in Arab affairs. But it will not affect all the League's institutions and many details of the return to Cairo remain to be worked out before the decision is formally proclaimed.

For many years, Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, remained officially frozen out of Arab dealings. But an Arab League summit meeting in Amman, Jordan, in November 1987, freed its members from a collective prohibition on re-establishing diplomatic relations.

by CNB