The focus of the conference was to implement the plans discussed at the first Arab League summit held in January of that year.

The summit was notable for being a key step in the buildup to the Six-Day War in 1967 and separately for "approving the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

"[2] The 1964 Arab League summit (Cairo) was against the background of the 1961 breakup of the United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria, the continued control of the Gaza Strip by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the recent tensions in the region driven by Israel's proposed diversion of water from Lake Tiberias.

"[4] The council made a number of resolutions, principally relating to Palestine and Arab unity.

These resolutions included statements that the Council:[5] The participants in the meeting were recorded in a letter to the United Nations as follows:[5] A number of key Arab states had not yet achieved independence from Britain in 1964, and therefore their leaders did not participate in the conference: