Interior ministers of the 22-nation Arab League will meet in the Saudi capital today to discuss a range of regional security issues besides a major Arab plan to combat terrorism and monitor Al-Qaeda’s communication networks. The 34-point Arab plan calls on the governments of Arab states and the security agencies to set up a high-tech mechanism to monitor websites, which are spreading extremist ideologies, influencing public opinion and soliciting new terror recruits.
“The conference of the Arab interior ministers will be presided over by Prince Mohammed bin Naif,” said a statement released by the Ministry of Interior, here yesterday. The session will be attended by Arab interior ministers, heads of the regional security agencies, and representatives of the UN, Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Arab Maghreb Union, Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) and Arab police organizations.
Important issues to be discussed during the interior ministers’ meeting include plans and proposals to combat terrorism and drug-trafficking and how to boost civil defense system, as well as member states’ reports on the implementation of their security strategies. The statement said the agenda of this 30th session of the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council also includes several other topics including a report to be presented by Prince Mohammed on NAUSS.
Prince Mohammed, who is also the president of the NAUSS Supreme Council, will be attending and hosting the Arab interior ministers’ conference for the first time since he was appointed minister of interior last November. The session will review the results and the deliberations of some sessions of the Arab League. They interior ministers will also talk about the possibility of establishing an Arab office for combating organized crime and forming a higher Arab security committee.
Referring to the new Arab plan to combat terrorism, Ahmad bin Mohammad Ali Kuman, secretary general of the council of Arab interior ministers, said the new strategy will greatly help in monitoring the communications between the terrorist groups and their geographical locations. This plan calls “for monitoring and blocking websites of the various terrorist groups,” which contain information and instructions on how to make bombs and explosives, he added.
The plan also seeks greater co-operation between member states by sharing circulars about fugitive terrorist defendants or convicts with the Arab Bureau of Criminal Police. “The terror issue has priority because of the serious consequences for the security and stability of the region,” said Kuman, after the preparatory meeting, here yesterday. On behalf of Saudi Arabia, the preparatory session at the local Ritz Carlton Hotel was attended by Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Salem, undersecretary at the Ministry of Interior.
Al-Salem pointed out that the National Information Center of Saudi Arabia in cooperation with the General Directorate of Passport and the Public Security will display about 17 technological projects at an exhibition to be organized on the sidelines of the ministerial conference here. He pointed out that several Arab interior ministers have already arrived in Riyadh with their delegations.
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