Bahrain attends conference on fighting terror-financing

Paris, Apr. 26 (BNA): Interior Minister Lt-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa and Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa have taken part in the international conference on fighting terror-financing. The conference, held by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris on April 25 and 26 under the title “No Money for Terror”, was also attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, ministers and experts from various countries and the institutions and organisations concerned.  It aimed for concerted international efforts to continue the combat against terrorism in view of the new developments in the modus operandi and strategies of terrorist groups, including the creation of new ways to finance terror. The event reviewed the financing sources of terrorist organisations and the international efforts to dry up those sources. After the opening speeches, the meeting was held in the form of a roundtable. The interior and foreign ministers took part in the first session entitled “Where does their money come from? Tracing terrorist networks” and the second session entitled “Blocking terrorists' financial flows: the next step”. The Interior Minister in a speech informed the participants about the terrorist activities witnessed by Bahrain in the last few years and the UN member state responsible for it, Iran. He said that in 2015, for reasons linked to violations of banking laws, the Central Bank of Bahrain had to place the “Future Bank”, which operated in Bahrain, under its administration. It was proven that it worked as a terrorism-financing centre. He also said that in 2016, the two Iranian shareholders of the Future Bank - Bank Saderat and Bank Melli - sought arbitration in The Hague. “While preparing our defence, the investigation discovered that Future Bank’s management was involved in the following violations: Laundering $4.7 billion through ‘wire stripping’ SWIFT messages, laundering $2.7 billion through an old method of inter-bank messaging, using hard one-time codes and physical delivery, granting international business loans, issuing letters of credit and trade finance guarantees worth $1.5 billion that violated the international law, and disbursing funds through illegal means in Bahrain to strengthen the Iranian influence in the country,” he said. This amounted to almost $9 billion, discovered within a few months by banking inspectors, he added.  “Among the dangerous use of those amounts is what we have found of cash that reached those involved in terrorist acts. We confiscated the funds in dead points meant for those assigned to carry assassination tasks.” The Interior Minister said that Bahrain continued to contribute to the international efforts to fight extremism and terrorism and drying up their financing sources. He also highlighted his support to the formation of the International Counter-terrorism Financing Centre in Saudi Arabia and looked forward to cooperate with that institution. He concluded that for the completion of the counter-terrorism agenda, work should be through two paths. One of them is fighting terrorism financing while fighting extremism should be the priority In the same context, the interior and foreign ministers attended the third session on fighting organised crimes to dry up the sources of terrorism financing and the fourth session on fighting them with more active methods The Foreign Minister in his remarks spoke about Bahrain’s long experience in fighting terrorism financing, its successes in stopping suspicious financial transactions and its readiness to pass its experiences on to friendly countries and said it would continue to coordinate with all countries and international organisations to eliminate the issue. He added that Bahrain was among the first countries for making a call to fight terrorism-financing and had held an international conference on the subject in Manama in 2014.  The minister called for the reinforcement of coordination between all countries to tackle terrorism and adopt new multi-dimensional methods to achieve integration based on common principles to contain and check terrorism and fight violence, terrorism and extremism in the social media. He stressed that Bahrain had been dedicated to fighting the dangerous phenomenon through drafting and developing its laws to meet the international laws and norms and by exchanging information with friendly countries to check the risks posed by terrorism and its financing. Bahrain wasted no efforts to cooperate and coordinate with friendly countries to exchange the relevant expertise, he added.  Shaikh Khalid reaffirmed Bahrain’s firm stand to condemn extremism, violence and terrorism regardless of their motives. He also made a call to deal with terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, especially those supported by other countries, to eliminate them and list their members and entities in the international terrorism list.  At the end of the conference, the President of France asserted in a speech that Daesh and Al Qaeda are the two corners of terrorism, adding that the current battle against terrorism is a field one and an approach should be determined to dry up the sources of terrorism financing. The participants issued a final statement “Paris Declaration”, stating the importance of an integrated approach to combating terrorism and its financing with the protection of joint efforts to fight terrorism financing. They affirmed the commitment to stop the funding of individual terrorists and terror groups that are linked to Daesh and Al Qaeda.  In the side-line of the event, the Interior Minister met his French counterpart, Gérard Collomb, and expressed thanks and appreciation to the French official for the invitation to attend this important international conference. They discussed topics reviewed during the event and the reinforcement of counter-terrorism financing, security cooperation and coordination and topics of common interest. The Interior Minister also met President and Vice President of the French-Bahraini Friendship Society and held a meeting with Senator Jean Bizet to strengthen relations between Bahrain and GCC countries and the French Senate.  During the meetings, the Interior Minister asserted the importance of counter-terrorism efforts, hoping France will be able through the taken measures to fight terrorism and its financing sources, especially through the development of laws. The French parliamentarians asserted the wisdom of His Majesty the King, highlighting their dedication to promoting cooperation between Bahrain and French, including in the security field and the continuation of the international efforts to counter-terrorism financing.