The official Saudi Press Agency cited a speech to the two-day event by Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, in which he said the kingdom “has always confirmed its condemnation and denunciation of terrorism in all its forms.” SPA added, “The participants condemned all kinds of terrorism, confirming that terrorism doesn’t belong to a specific religion or race and that the world should stand united to bring to justice whoever was involved in financing, planning or carrying out terror acts.” In seven weeks, an “ad-hoc committee” set up by the U.N. General Assembly will meet in New York – as it has done almost every spring for the past 16 years – to discuss a draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism, which was first proposed by India in 1996.
A few sticking-points have prevented progress over the years, in particular the stance, held by Arab and Islamic states including Saudi Arabia, that in defining terrorism an exception must be made for the fight against “foreign occupation.” Failure to break the impasse prompted a dispirited U.N. to call off the planned 2012 session of the ad-hoc committee, but at a meeting in New York last November it was decided to give the effort another push, so the committee will meet again from April 8-12. During that November meeting, the “occupation” issue reared its head, again. The official account of the proceedings cited unnamed delegations as stressing the importance of concluding a comprehensive convention in order to provide states with “a definition of terrorism to ensure universal criminalization.”
However, “the need for a clear definition of terrorism, which distinguished terrorism from the legitimate struggle in the exercise of their right to self-determination of peoples under colonial, alien domination or foreign occupation was reaffirmed,” it said. Evident in the record of the meeting was the frustration felt by some countries’ representatives, with some saying that if agreement could not be reached “then it was pointless to continue to discuss the matter annually.” “The committee should not, it was suggested, continue to deliberate on the same issue every year if it is clear to all in attendance that there was no possibility for agreement,” it said.
Some remained optimistic, suggesting that a date be set for a high-level U.N. conference that “could assist in resolving the outstanding issues surrounding the draft convention, including the definition of terrorism.” But other participants countered that a conference should only be held after agreement is reached on the draft convention.
‘Differentiate between terrorism and legitimate struggle’
