Council of Arab Justice Ministers Urges Intensified Cooperation Against Terrorism

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during his joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Jordan January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during his joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Jordan January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
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Council of Arab Justice Ministers Urges Intensified Cooperation Against Terrorism

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during his joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Jordan January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during his joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Jordan January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

The Council of Arab Ministers of Justice called on Arab states to intensify bilateral and collective cooperation in the field of information exchange pertaining to combating terrorism.

At the end of its 35th session at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, chaired by Bahrain, the council called for coordinating Arab efforts to face the return of terrorists and their families from conflict zones, by developing comprehensive mechanisms in line with the Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, the resolutions issued by the League Council, and the decisions of the Councils of Ministers of Justice and Interior.

The Council underlined “the need to refrain from providing any form of explicit or implicit support to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts,” and expressed “rejection of all forms of extortion by terrorist groups of threatening, killing hostages or demanding ransom.”

It also called for “intensifying Arab bilateral and collective cooperation among judicial bodies in Arab countries, in the field of investigations, follow-up, and judicial procedures relating to money laundering and terrorist financing.”

The council emphasized the necessity to “develop national measures and mechanisms to ensure the effective tracking, seizure and confiscation of laundered funds or funds directed to finance terrorism as quickly as possible, and to strengthen measures to prevent terrorism, address its causes and dry up its intellectual and financial sources.”

It also highlighted the importance of implementing programs aimed at promoting tolerance and pluralism and combating extremism.

The Council of Arab Ministers of Justice adopted during its meeting on Thursday “the final version of the internal rules of the Arab legal and judicial cooperation network in the field of combating terrorism and organized crime.”



Trump Says He Expects Hamas Decision in 24 Hours on 'Final' Peace Proposal

Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Trump Says He Expects Hamas Decision in 24 Hours on 'Final' Peace Proposal

Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a "final proposal" for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump said on Tuesday Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalize a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.

He was asked on Friday if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, and said: "We'll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours."

A source close to Hamas said on Thursday the group sought guarantees that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal would lead to the end of Israel's war in Gaza.

Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Dozens of Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza authorities.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.

A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of "ethnic cleansing."