The fight against extremism will not be won by any one country acting on its own. Even if a particular nation succeeds in recapturing territory or bringing extremists and terrorists to justice, this victory will be short-lived if the action is not part of a worldwide effort to counter what has become a global threat.
This is why the UAE’s plan to launch a Contact Group to Counter Extremism is so important. It will be a significant part of the ongoing wider efforts to make sure that all the nations engaged in the fight against terror are able to share best practices as quickly as possible — including sharing intelligence and ensuring that the wide variety of counter-terrorism measures are effective across all their borders so that the pressure mounted on extremist operations is consistent.
When Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, presented the UAE’s plan at the United Nations Security Council this week, he also made the point that continued inaction has a dreadful human cost, with a specific example of the plight of the Syrian and Palestinian people, who have suffered grave violence for far too long without enough international efforts to help them.
The coordination required to contain and eradicate Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) includes a global effort to stop their money flows and their international recruitment.
The extremists have managed to attract more than 20,000 deluded people from a wide range of countries, who are fighting in Syria and Iraq, and these recruits could become a potential terror force when they return to their peaceful home countries. Only this week, Daesh yet again promised to expand its terror operations worldwide and it is not alone in threatening the world at large. Also this week, Somalia-based Al Shabab has threatened to bomb shopping centres in a variety of European and American cities, while other extremist organisations have said they will expand their actions into other Middle Eastern countries as well as Europe and North America.
This attempt to produce global terror needs a global response, which is what the UAE is helping to organise, building the essential links between the participating nations so that success is possible.
