The United States and Turkey are launching a new effort to combat terrorism in countries emerging from authoritarian rule in the wake of the Arab Spring, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.
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The new counterterrorism forum will have more teeth than the UN Counterterrorism panel that was set up after 9/11 to maintain a list of terrorist suspects supplied by individual countries and a watch over funding of al-Qaeda and other terrorist initiatives.
Instead, the forum will work directly with countries that are transitioning from authoritarian rule to democracy to "identify threats and weaknesses ... mobilize resources ... and help countries address terrorist threats within their own borders," Clinton said. The forum will help countries write counterterrorism legislation and train police.
Some of the authoritarian governments toppled in the Arab Spring had been supported by Washington in exchange for their collaboration against terrorists, which provoked criticism among supporters of reform within those countries.
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The new forum, which is to work closely with the United Nations, is "based on a recognition that the US alone cannot eliminate every terrorist or terrorist organization," according to the official statement.
It will take a "strategic approach" to civilian counterterrorism work and help "increase the number of countries" with the political will and technology to combat terrorism, the statement said.
U.S. and Turkey launch new effort to combat global terrorism - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News