Monitoring Desk
RIYADH: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense opened on Sunday, the Inaugural Meeting of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) Ministers of Defense Council under the slogan “Allied Against Terrorism” with participation of the ministers of Defense of the Islamic States Coalition, international delegations and official missions from supporting and friendly countries.
The inaugural meeting started with a recitation of verses from the Holy Quran.
General Raheel Sharif, Commander of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) affirmed that the biggest challenge to peace and stability in the 21st century especially for the Muslim World is confronting the most dangerous phenomenon of terrorism. He also said that terrorist organizations have distorted the notion of Jihad and desperately try to cloak their horrendous activities in the legitimacy of Islam and through ruthless terrorist acts they threaten international peace to further their agendas.
He also pointed out that in the last three years approximately 8,000 major terrorist attacks occurred worldwide, resulting in more than 90,000 deaths and thousands of innocent people injured. They were concentrated in the Middle East, south Asia and Africa. Al Qaeda and Daesh along with their affiliates were responsible for more attacks than any other group.
He clarified that over 70% of terrorism related deaths occurred in four countries that are Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
“These countries since last many years are paying a very heavy price in blood and treasure. In Iraq we are finally seeing improvement with recapture of Iraqi land from Daesh,” He added.
He also said that Pakistan has turned the tide against terrorism and is fighting this menace successfully. Fight against terrorism has become extremely complex and resource intense. Traditional forces and law enforcement agencies have to fight a faceless enemy demanding high level of preparedness and continuous vigilance. While individual nations have built capabilities in various fields, there is lack of synergy in the Muslim World in terms of institutionalized mechanisms”
He pointed out that realizing the need for a comprehensive strategic approach against terrorism, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has taken a historic and bold initiative of formulating this counter Terrorism Coalition.
He also said that the vision of IMCTC is to have a collective response against terrorism capable of leading and coordinating the efforts of member countries with high efficiency and effectiveness. The vision of IMCTC will provide a platform facilitating coalition countries, with the assistance of supporting nations and international organizations to coordinate and unite their political, intellectual, media, economic and military efforts against all forms of terrorism and extremism and to effectively join other international security and peace-keeping efforts.
IMCTC’s sole objective is to fight against terrorism and it is not against any country, sect or religion.
The mechanism of coalition is divided in four main domains.
The first domain will focus on countering Terrorist Ideology. Effort will be made to preserve and promote Islam’s universal message of moderation, tolerance and compassion, by creating intellectual, psychological and social impact to counter the perverted radical views, he said.
He also said “Second is Communication. Here IMCTC will develop, produce and publish factual media content for dialogue to correct perceptions and discredit radical and extremist narratives.
Next is Terrorist Financing. IMCTC will endeavor to dry up all types of financial support to terrorist organizations through collaboration and coordination of member countries and relevant stakeholders in sharing and developing financial intelligence capabilities, advance legal and regulatory frameworks and other support mechanisms. ”
“A number of our member countries are under tremendous pressure while fighting well established terrorist organizations due to capacity shortages of their armed forces and law enforcement agencies.
IMCTC will act as a platform to assist member countries in their counter terrorism operations through intelligence sharing and capacity building.
In line with the coalition’s mandate a strategy has been developed to utilize the expertise and resources of member and friendly countries.
Support will be provided to build capabilities of military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies of member countries.
This will be practically manifested through proper planning, cross training and exercise in urban, rural and varied terrain conditions under hostile environment,” he added.
“To improve coordination, joint exercise will be conducted based on near real-time scenarios demanding quick response and promoting a sense of solidarity and shared responsibility to fight terrorism, he said, adding that IMCTC will create a state-of-the-art intelligence and information sharing platform to counter terrorist networks their facilitators, abettors, sympathizers and financiers.
After correlating and incisive analysis of critical information, actionable intelligence will be shared with all concerned.
“Our ultimate aim here today is to unite and work together in defeating terrorism and extremist ideologies.
Our destinies are linked to each other’s well-being and prosperity.
It is now more than ever necessary for us to unite, resolve our outstanding issues and promote peace and harmony.
With the will of Allah Almighty and your support we will defeat the scourge of terrorism, building a secure future for our generations to come,” he concluded.
