Al-Bashir Al-Koot, Afro-Arab Relations: Opportunities and Challenges, Internet, http://www.sis.gov.eg/VR/32/3/4-3.

htm, Ten Arab states lie in Africa, about two-thirds the Arabs have African affiliations, and Afro-Arab countries form half the area of Africa. Those same Afro-Arab countries represent three-quarters the Arab world. In other words, the bigger part in the Arab world lies in Africa. Moreover, Arabic ranks first among African written and spoken languages then comes Swahili, Hausa, and Bantu. Speakers of Arabic outnumber speakers of French, English, and Portuguese. Afro-Arab relations are deeply-rooted in the common history. However, the communication between both groups was ruptured due to European occupation that divided the region upon imperial interests. As for contemporary Afro-Arab relations, they date back to the 1950s and they were deeply entrenched thanks to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Salient events concomitant to the Afro-Arab relation development was the Palestinian issue and the establishment of the Israeli state, 1967 . This problem reflected an Afro-Arab solidarity that reached the apex by severing most African-Israeli relations by the advent of 1974. 1977. In this summit, Arab countries pledged $ 1.46 billion for developing the continent. Thus, the relation development that happened in the 1970s can be deemed the golden decade in the march of such relations. This decade embodied the apex of the Arab interest in African issues and in return there was an African interest in the Palestinian issue, a central Arab issue. On the diplomatic level, the Arab interest in such relations is not as strong as they should be with exception to Egypt, Algeria, and Libya. The diplomatic representation of these countries in Africa is 42 Egyptian embassies, 33 Algerian embassies, and 32 Libyan embassies. Impediments of Afro-Arab relations Despite the Afro-Arab geographic, cultural, and demographic intersections, the lack of a fixed and permanent institutional entity that may sponsor Afro-Arab relations is a major impediment. In other words, the African Union is confined to the African countries and rules out Arab Asian countries. On the other hand, the Arab League (AL) is mainly concerned with Arab countries and though Afro-Arab countries are members to the AL, the League has no relations whatsoever with the other African countries. Arab countries apply systems and regional programmes that come from outside the continent. Such programmes are devised by organizations of different affiliations; some are concerned with the Mediterranean countries among others. These organizations distract AfroArab states' attention from programmes of integration and cooperation on the African level. Technical geographic obstacles separate northern Africa from the rest of the continent, and the Sahara forms wall that might separate the north and the south of the continent. Yet, the technical economic view of that barrier makes it an actual impediment before cooperation and Afro-Arab communication. In the last decade of the twentieth century, more international competitors came to the African continent. Salient of those competitors are the USA, China, India, Turkey, and Iran in addition to the traditional rivals; France, Britain, Israel. All of this distracts Afro-Arab efforts and singles out African and Arab countries for narrow interests. Attempts to drive a wedge in Afro-Arab relations and deform their past include:

Trying to link slavery in Africa to Arabs though it is historically proven that they are Europeans who first brought slavery to the continent. Depicting Arabs as invaders of Africa through claiming that Africa is a continent of the black race not Arabs. Worth noting is that the African demographic structure has been blended with other races since the dawn of history. Some obstacles are related to the economic aspects. In other words, Arab and African countries are producers of primary resources, and their economy is based on such activity. Moreover, productions of these countries are mostly similar, a factor which impedes commercial exchange. In return, they are commercially linked to producing countries in Europe, North America, China, Japan, India, and Russia among others. Perspectives of Afro-Arab relations Scenario I: this is a pessimistic scenario that is based on the deterioration of relations. This is based on realistic givens such as the lack of permanent institutions that would sponsor those relations. However, on the other hand, some international sides are active in boosting their relations with the continent. Scenario II: this is an optimistic scenario based on a sudden awareness on the part of Arab and African decision makers. Libya Afro-Arab summit of 2010 may help establish new ties, institutions, and structure that may help relations thrive. Scenario III: this is the most realistic scenario that assumes that relations will maintain the same condition without improvements. In return, this means that Arab and African economies will develop stronger ties with major powers; China, the USA, Japan, India, Turkey, and Israel. This means entrenching the economic affiliation to external powers.