Algeria president urges Arab unity to confront 'tensions and crises'

Algeria's president called for Arab unity to face escalating "tensions and crises" as he opened the first Arab League summit since a string of normalisation deals with Israel divided the region.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune told the meeting's inaugural session that "our central and primary cause remains the Palestinian cause".

The Algerian president also warned that "exceptional global conditions are creating polarisation... which is impacting our food security", without directly mentioning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The regional and international context (is) marked by rising tensions and crises, particularly in the Arab world, which in its modern history hasn't seen a period as difficult as the one it is currently undergoing," he added.

This summit, the first since 2019, had been postponed multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the meantime, several members of the 22-member bloc -- for decades a forum for strident declarations of support for the Palestinian cause -- have normalised ties with Israel.

The United Arab Emirates went first in a historic US-mediated deal establishing full ties with the Jewish state.

That sparked a similar accord with Bahrain, a provisional deal with Sudan and a re-launch of ties with Morocco, helping rekindle the kingdom's decades-old rivalry with neighbouring Algeria.

Algiers remains a steadfast supporter of the Palestinians, even mediating a reconciliation between rival factions in October.