Manama: Kuwait has expressed its readiness to cooperate with the US Justice Department in the fight against terrorism and money laundering, a local daily has said.
Zaki Al Sulaimi, the social Affairs and labour ministry assistant undersecretary for legal affairs, said that terrorism and money laundering were global phenomena and that all countries, including Kuwait, were suffering from them.
The official added that Kuwait had taken serious measures to fight the phenomena, saying that it had toughened criteria and standards for raising funds and imposed a serious monitoring of activities conducted by charitable organisations, Al Jareeda newspaper reported on Tuesday.
However, the official said at a meeting with Michel Johnson, an adviser from the US Justice Department that Kuwait could benefit from experiences offered by other countries.
The report said that the US adviser urged Kuwait to increase its monitoring on the licensed charitable organisations “with a religious character” to ensure the donations and raised funds are not exploited in other purposes or spent on illegal activities.
The US is ready to assist Kuwait with great possibilities and opportunities to help the country fight money laundering and terrorism, Johnson reportedly added.
Dedicated workshops to train Kuwaiti customs officers could be arranged to ensure they know how to detect and handle cases, he said.
The Kuwaiti official reportedly welcomed the proposal, but said that he was looking forward to receiving more details to present them to the technical panel in charge of fighting raising funds before they can be submitted to the minister.
