The international community has made considerable progress in the fight against terrorism, said a senior UN official on Wednesday.
Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, has remained "as relevant today as it was six-and-a-half years ago," Mike Smith, executive director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), told the 15-member council in an open debate.
Since the adoption of the landmark resolution, there have been hundreds of new ratifications of the key counter-terrorism pacts, he said.
Noting that "considerable progress" had been made, Smith said most countries had now criminalized terrorism.
"There has been an almost unprecedented level of international exchange of information and cooperation among relevant agencies across borders, with the purpose of disrupting planned terrorist attacks and enabling the arrest and prosecution of those engaged in terrorism," he said.
Now the need was less to ensure that countries understood the seriousness of the challenge and more to make sure they had the capacity and expertise to implement the counter-terrorism measures contained in resolution 1373, he added.
Resolution 1373 obliges all UN member states to criminalize assistance for terrorist activities, deny financial support and safe haven to terrorists and share information about groups planning terrorist attacks.
Established in 2004, the CTED assists the council's Counter-Terrorism Committee in monitoring 1373's implementation.
Source:Xinhua
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