Photo by Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
Since it was founded in 2011, the United Nations has urged governments worldwide to help fund their Counter Terrorism Centre. Saudi Arabia answered that call on Wednesday, donating $100 million dollars to help support the Centre’s efforts. The country has also issued a challenge to other nations, calling on them to match their support.
According to Saudi ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir, the money will be used to help provide technology, tools, and other methods that will allow the Centre to confront and eliminate terrorist threats around the world. When the UN Counter Terrorism Centre was established in 2011, Saudi Arabia also provided $10 million in seed money.
Saudi Arabia hopes that this larger donation will encourage other countries to begin helping to fund the Centre as well. The money could help countries that have been beset with terrorist activity but don’t have the resources to afford counter terrorism technology on their own, for example. Jubeir hopes that countries like the United States might be willing to help with regional or bilateral efforts. In this way, areas around the world that need more training or equipment might be able to gain access to those elements. The Centre could either fund those efforts on its own, or provide an incentive to countries who make donations in those areas by matching their donations.
There are many countries in the world that still haven’t made counter terrorism efforts a priority. These areas have been lulled by a false sense of security into thinking that because there is no terrorist activity in their country currently, there never will be. The attitude in these nations resembles that of the United States before 9/11/2001. According to Jubeir, it is important for these countries to remember, that it’s only a matter of time; when terrorist groups flourish in one part of the world, they’ll soon spread.