Arab officials urge stronger counter-terrorism cooperation

Officials attending a conference organized by the Council of Arab Interior Ministers here, which wrapped up Thursday, agreed there is great need to bolster cooperation among counter-terrorism bodies and officials to face new challenges in this field. Head of the Kuwaiti delegation and representing the Interior Ministry, Colonel Abdullah Al-Kanderi told KUNA there is strong interaction and coordination among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) security and counter-terrorism bodies and regular meetings to discuss the latest in the field, and all GCC member states were present throughout the two-day conference, which again shows their keenness on improving counter-terrorism work. Though the items on the agenda are not new, he said, the related details are, particularly when it comes to states affected by what is by ntow called the Arab Spring. Phenomena such as widespread of weapons and smuggling of arms and ammunition featured prominently, and Kuwait was particularly interested in discussion over this issue. There is great interest on the part of Kuwait, and the whole of the GCC bloc, to share information in this regard with Iraq, Iran, Yemen, where the security situation is still unstable. "These are, after all, our neighboring states," the official pointed out. Regarding illegal arms, Al-Kanderi told KUNA Kuwait had not detected any arms smuggling operations. "However, the state is maintaining utmost vigilance and appropriate precautions and plans are in place to protect our citizens against all threat, whether from within our territory or beyond." In reference to the rise of Islamic political parties across the Arab region, the official stressed the State of Kuwait has no problem with any Islamic party, and its security strategies are not drafted based upon what party happens to be in power. "All GCC security bodies are on full alert, lest any external threat spills into our region, because we all realize terrorism has no nationality and is a trans-border threat." The rapidly widening scope of terrorist groups' operations is a main challenge we are facing, and we need to re-adjust our plans and fine-tune our strategies to best respond to the current state of affairs, Al-Kanderi remarked. The officials are to issue their conference recommendations later in the day, which would be forwarded to the next session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council for approval.