Fighting Terrorism and Extremism a Collective International Mission that Needs True Political Will: al-Jaafari

NEW YORK, (ST)- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar Al-Jaafri has reiterated the need to fight terrorism in general and the “foreign terrorist fighters” phenomenon in particular, pointing out that confronting terrorism and extremism is a collective international mission that necessitates a true political will by all governments of the world.

Al-Jaafari was speaking on behalf of the Syrian delegation participating in the United Nations High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of Member States, which kicked off on Thursday at the UN headquarters under the Theme “Strengthening international cooperation to combat the evolving threat of terrorism”.

 He said that luring and recruiting terrorists across the world is not an emergency phenomenon, noting that the influx of tens of thousands of “foreign terrorist fighters” into Syria was an unprecedented phenomenon in terms of the number of terrorists or the number of countries from where they came.

UN reports have confirmed that tens of thousands of terrorists have flowed into Syria and Iraq from 101 UN member states, al-Jaafari clarified, pointing out that the number of foreign terrorists with European nationality who came to fight in Syria reached 12 thousand terrorists most of them were British, French, Belgian, German and Spanish.

The Syrian representative reiterated that any collective international effort to confront the “foreign terrorist fighters” phenomenon and the danger of their return to their homelands must be based on acknowledging that the emergence and expansion of this dangerous phenomenon have been the result the international community’s dereliction of duty from the beginning.

“We would not have  been sitting here in this hall to discuss what has become known as the danger of the return of the foreign terrorist fighters if the governments of the member states have activated early alarm systems and exchanged data about extremists” al-Jaafari said.

“Counterterrorism experts and participants in this conference realize that our world has been witnessing a wave of explosions and terrorists attacks committed by foreign terrorists returning from Syria and Iraq or by Daesh and al-Qaeda-linked extremists. This stresses the fact that confronting and eliminating terrorism and extremism is a collective international duty that necessitates the existence of true political will by all governments of the world,” he made it clear.

Al-Jaafari reiterated the importance of exchanging data, monitoring the movements of returning foreign fighters and rehabilitate them through a process that includes guaranteeing accountability and just trial that respect the sovereignty of law.

Reacting against Turkish claims, al-Jaafari said that every Turkish military action inside the Syrian territories is an flagrant aggression on Syria and that all Turkish troops in Syria are considered as occupying forces.

 “Thousands of foreign terrorist fighters, particularly those who were brought from Central Asia and Europe, neither landed in Syria with parachutes nor came in space stations from other planets..They surely entered Syria from the Turkish lands across borders the protection of which should be the responsibility of the Turkish regime’s forces, ” al-Jaafari said.

He added “if you have been serious about fighting terrorism, as you have been claiming, You wouldn’t have left  your borders opened over the past years for the terrorists  who were trained and armed in camps build on your territories and then sent to Syria in coordination with certain governments.”

In an Op-Ed, the UN Secretary General called for a concerted multilateral response at global, regional and national levels to defeat the threat of terrorism.  According to the United Nations Information Center, he writes “Terrorism is a transnational threat that cannot be defeated by any single government or organization… we must also address root causes by promoting education, tackling youth unemployment and addressing marginalization.” through the engagement of local communities, religious organizations and the media.

Hamda Mustafa