AKIPRESS.COM - Saudi Arabia donated $100 million Wednesday to a U.N. body established to coordinate and assist international counterterrorism efforts and called on other nations to match its support.
“The goal is to help provide the tools, technologies and methods to confront and eliminate the threat of terrorism,” Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said in presenting a check to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Washington Post said.
Saudi King Abdullah provided seed money to establish the U.N. Counterterrorism Center in 2011. Since then, the center has held conferences and issued papers but has had little direct impact on the ground.
Money would go, for example, to countries with nascent terrorist activity that can’t afford counterterrorism technology or have not set it as a priority, Jubeir said in a separate interview. The center’s board could decide there is a “need for equipment for security at airports in the following countries. Who’s going to pay for it?”
The center, Jubeir said, could work in collaboration with donor countries such as the United States that are willing to help with bilateral or regional assistance. President Obama has set assistance through regional partnerships as a primary U.S. counterterrorism strategy.