US State Department Hails Saudi Role in Combating Terrorism

The United States hailed on Friday Saudi Arabia’s efforts in combating terrorism and the threat of ISIS and al-Qaeda sympathizers.

In its annual terrorism report for 2018, the State Department said Saudi Arabia “continued to maintain a strong counter-terrorism relationship with the United States and responded to terrorist threats from violent militant groups, ISIS sympathizers, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Iran-backed Houthi militants based in Yemen.”

Based on local reporting, the Kingdom continued to see a reduction in the number of deaths attributable to terrorist violence as the government actively and effectively improved its counter-terrorism readiness.

“Through a range of counter-terrorism initiatives, many in partnership with the US government, Saudi Arabia took tangible steps to strengthen its counter-terrorism capabilities in border security, counter terrorist financing and countering violent extremism,” said the report.

Saudi Arabia remained a key member and active participant in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and co-leads the Defeat-ISIS Coalition’s Counter-ISIS Finance Group, it stressed.

The Kingdom co-chairs the Riyadh-based Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) with the United States, an initiative founded in 2017 to increase US-Gulf multilateral collaboration to counter terrorist financing.

Senior Saudi government and religious leaders have also issued strong public statements denouncing violent acts perpetrated by global terrorist organizations, said the report.