Posted on 09/27/2004 6:39:59 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
UNITED NATIONS, 28 September 2004 — Saudi Arabia yesterday announced it would host an international conference on combating terrorism, but warned that peace and security in the Middle East will fail if Israel holds on to policies “totally incompatible with the fundamental principles of the peace process.”
The Kingdom’s “strategy of pre-emptive actions to forestall criminal acts has been successful in the fight against this vile epidemic,” Assistant Foreign Minister Nizar Obaid Madani told world leaders and diplomats at the UN General Assembly.
Madani said that the Saudi government would host the international conference to combat terrorism from Feb. 5-8. The aim of the conference is to “exchange information and experience in the field of combating terrorism” and to foster cooperation in the fight against “this universal threat,” he said, adding that the conference would also address measures to help tackle money laundering as well as drug and arms smuggling.
Saudi Arabia “hopes that the outcome (of the conference)...will constitute an important addition...to eradicating the roots and causes of this dangerous phenomenon,” Madani said, adding that invitations were sent to various world bodies and countries victimized by, or struggling with, terrorism.
The Kingdom has stepped up its campaign to root out terrorism after a series of bombings and shootings across the country since May 2003, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than 200 others.
In his keynote address to the UN, Madani also said that mounting violence and extremism in the Middle East “are largely due to the Israeli government’s pursuit of policies that are totally incompatible with the fundamental principles of the peace process.”
He said peace cannot be achieved by unilateral Israeli measures designed to achieve new realities on the ground for the purpose of prejudicing the final outcome of political negotiations.
Madani criticized moves to portray terrorism as an exclusively Muslim phenomenon. “Crimes committed by a handful of criminals and misguided felons cannot justify incriminating a whole society or an entire culture,” the Saudi minister said. “Terrorism can strike any city and target any interests regardless of the nationality, religion or ethnic origin of the victims,” Madani said.
Saudi authorities have been hunting supporters of Al-Qaeda network in the aftermath of a series of deadly attacks in the Kingdom. On Sunday, a French national, Laurent Barbot, 45, an employee of the French defense electronics firm, Thales, was shot dead in Jeddah, the latest in a series of killings of Westerners.
Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman of the Interior Ministry called the murder a “terrorist attack.”
Police, meanwhile, arrested a suspected terrorist after an exchange of gunfire in the southern Riyadh district of Al-Shafa on Sunday.
A police patrol intercepted a suspected car as it “sped away from Riyadh’s Al-Shafa district,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted an Interior Minstry official as saying.
According to Okaz Arabic daily, one of the three militants who opened fire at police was on the list of the Kingdom’s 26 most wanted terrorists.
There was, however, no official confirmation of that report though the paper quoted a security official as saying that the three included one of the most wanted terrorists.
Al-Turki said a Pakistani taxi driver sustained a minor injury to his leg when a bullet pierced his car during the gunbattle. A female resident of the neighborhood said she had seen one of the militants climbing onto a building opposite Al-Awda market.
Satan to quote Scripture
The Arab mind never changes. They cannot get over Ismael getting dump, and Isaac being the choosen one. The Arabs and all those they subjugated over the past 1200 years or so and forced into Islam cannot bend.
Thats like NAMBLA holding an anti kiddie porn conference in Thailand..
Nothing but the Al Suad family trying in vain to stop the inevitable. The creatures they created are no coming to eat them.
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