FM highlights counter-terror efforts, says 2011 events harmed security

CAIRO – 15 December 2019: The remarks of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the 2014 session of the United Nations General Assembly, underscoring the necessity to combat terrorist ideology through reforming religious discourse were of a significant impact, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said.

In his speech at one of the sessions of the third edition of the World Youth Forum in South Sinai’s Sharm El Sheikh, under the theme: “International Peace and Security: Current Challenges,” Shoukry affirmed the importance of the comprehensive fight against terrorism, through cultural and economic aspects, and through boycotting the countries that harbor terrorist groups and secure media platforms for them, apparently referring to Qatar and Turkey.



He affirmed, during the session attended by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the need for stable and collective policies to besiege the phenomenon of terrorism, and the need for the fight against terrorism to be a comprehensive war fought by the international community as a whole.

Concerning the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, when peoples of many Arab countries rebelled against their rulers, Shoukry said that those events and their repercussions had significantly affected international peace and security. He affirmed that change happened in an unorganized way and caused the national states to fail to achieve internal security and provide services to citizens.

These incidents resulted in internal conflicts in states like Syria, Yemen and Libya, Shoukry said, adding that such conflicts allowed terrorist groups to get funds and expand their operations through exploiting the international situation of these countries.

Due to the incidents in the Arab region since 2011, Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization had emerged in Iraq and Syria before they were beaten, Shoukry said.

The persistence of long-standing issues and crises in the Arab region, including the Palestinian cause, has allowed terrorist groups to attract youth and fighters to adopt their ideologies and to misuse the name of Islam in their calls, Shoukry said. He also said that these groups use social media to disseminate their thoughts.

The forum kicked off on Saturday in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el Sheikh, with the participation of around 7,000 attendees from around the world, according to state’s news agency MENA.

A number of senior officials attended the “International Peace and Security: Current Challenges” session, including Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Abul Gheit, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen and Paul Bekkers, director of the Office of the Secretary General at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).



For his part, Bekkers affirmed the need to involve youth in resolving all issues related to security and other fields, in order to achieve peace. He affirmed the need to directly communicate with youth in order to immune them from ideological thoughts that can drive them to violence and extremism.

Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, warned of the grave danger of the Internet on the Islamic communities, despite its benefits. He affirmed the need to tighten censorship on the cyberspace.