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.”



Lebanon Hopes for Neighborly Relations in First Message to New Syria Government

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon Hopes for Neighborly Relations in First Message to New Syria Government

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.

Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.

Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, opposition factions captured the capital Damascus.

Syria's new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.