Tuesday December 5, 2017
Kabul (BNA) Saudi Arabia has recently hosted the first high-level meeting of Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition held in Riyadh with participation of defense ministers of 40 member countries including Afghanistan.
In the meeting which has been held by the country’s ministry of foreign affairs in connection with counter terrorism in the world, Afghanistan acting minister of national defense Gen. Tariq Shah Bahrami, representing Afghanistan armed forces, attended the meeting and has been pledged by member countries in support for counter terrorism effort in Afghanistan.
The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC), is an intergovernmental counter-terrorist alliance of countries in the Muslim world, united around military intervention against ISIS and other counter-terrorist activities. Its creation was first announced by the Saudi Arabian defense minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, on 15 December 2015. The alliance was to have a joint operations center in Riyadh, capital city of Saudi Arabia.
When the coalition was announced there were 34 members. Additional countries joined and the number of members reached 41 when Oman joined in December 2016. On 6 January 2017, the Pakistani former chief of Army Staff, General (retd.) Raheel Sharif was named the IMCTC’s first commander-in-chief.
Can Raheel Sharif, who is himself accused of supporting terrorism in the region, lead the anti-terror coalition? Can the coalition accelerate counter terrorism effort as well as peace process in Afghanistan? A spokesperson to Afghanistan ministry of national defense Gen. Dawlat Waziri says the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition is supporting all efforts of Afghanistan on counter terrorism.
The world today witnesses sacrifices of the people of Afghanistan in counter terrorist effort.
The coalition should strongly condemn all attacks conducted by Daesh, Taliban and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan where dozens of innocent civilians are martyred every day.
Today the people of Afghanistan want peace and stability as well as stoppage of foreign interferences in internal affairs of their country.
Meanwhile, the US, NATO and religious ulemas of Islamic countries consider Pakistan as safe havens for international terrorists, but no steps have been taken against the country so far.
Now, we will see how the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition follow anti-terror effort against international terrorists who have safe havens and training centers in Pakistan and send terrorists and suicide bombers to Afghanistan and other Islamic and non-Islamic countries.
The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition is stressing on counter terrorism effort at a time that Iran, Iraq, Syria and Azerbaijan are not member of the coalition, while member national Qatar sent no one to attend the meeting.
