EU to Intensify "Counter-Terrorism" Coordination with Arab States
The European Union said Monday it will launch “anti-terror” projects with Muslim-majority nations and boost intelligence sharing following recent attacks in Paris.
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Foreign ministers agreed on the need to work with Arab nations and Turkey in particular to counter the growing threat.
After talks in Brussels with the Arab League chief and European ministers, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that "probably for the first time there was real deep awareness of the need to work together."
"We are looking at specific projects to launch in the coming weeks with some specific countries to increase the level of cooperation on counter-terrorism, and I would name Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria and the Gulf countries," she said.
The bloc will also post security attachés at its embassies in key nations to boost cooperation, as well as increasing its Arabic language capacity to try to counter Islamist propaganda, she said.
She said there was a need to "share intelligence information not only with the EU but also with other countries around us."
Nabil al-Arabi, the Arab League secretary general, said earlier that "every country in the world is suffering from terrorism."
"It is not just a military or security issue, it covers the intellectual, cultural, media and religious spheres and that is what we are trying to get," he said.
Europe is on high alert after three French gunmen killed ۱۷ people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris earlier this month, claiming they were acting on behalf of al-Qaeda.
Two suspected militants were also killed in a police raid in Belgium on Thursday and a huge security sweep across Europe resulted in dozens of arrests in Germany, Greece and France.
The EU meeting Monday was to prepare for a special European summit on February 12 dedicated to fighting terrorism.
Many of the ministers will meet again on Thursday in London when US Secretary of State John Kerry co-hosts talks with some 20 countries, including Arab states.
But so far many EU states have been reluctant to open up their intelligence networks to anyone except their most trusted allies for fear of harmful leaks, let alone with Arab nations.
Mogherini said the ministers urged the European Parliament to stop holding up a system for exchanging air passenger information — backed by many states as a key tool in tracking militant suspects, but loathed by many due to concerns over civil liberties.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Paris attacks had "changed Europe and the world" and called for "possibly increased exchanges with Muslim countries."
His British counterpart Philip Hammond made the same point and pressed the need for progress on the passenger data system.
European counter-terrorism coordination with Arab states is nothing new. A 2009 Amnesty International report detailed how Saudi Arabia used its counter-terrorism program to repress internal opposition with impunity, as its Western allies turned a blind eye so long as their strategic interests were preserved.
Western powers have also funded and armed militant groups in North Africa and West Asia in the past several years, most notably in Libya, Iraq and Syria. Many of these weapons have since ended in the hands of Islamist groups these world powers say they oppose.
The aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks has seen a sharp rise in Islamophobic and xenophobic crimes in Europe, as well as repression of freedom of speech.
Growing anti-Muslim sentiment has reinforced fears that France, home to an estimated six million Muslims, and other European Union countries will witness an increase in the popularity of already prominent far-right political movements and their Islamophobic discourse.
France’s National Observatory Against Islamophobia said 116 anti-Muslim incidents had been reported to authorities since the January 7-9 shooting spree by three French jihadists.
At least one person was killed in the south of France in a suspected Islamophobic attack, when a man stabbed his neighbor, 47-year-old French Muslim Mohammed al-Makouli, 17 times while shouting "I am your god, I am your Islam.”
In Germany, police banned a rally by the PEGIDA movement — which has staged anti-Islam, anti-immigration demonstrations since October — in the eastern city of Dresden after a reported threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the movement's leader Lutz Bachmann.
Other demonstrations inspired by PEGIDA have since sprouted in other European countries, including Denmark and Norway, although it is worth noting that many counter-demonstrations have taken place against PEGIDA rallies.
France has also cracked down on speech it considers as “terrorism apologia,” swiftly placing more than 50 in custody, including a 16-year-old for posting a ironical caricature of a former Charlie Hebdo cover on social media.
Critics have pointed out that "terrorism" is a politically loaded term which has often been used by governments to either delegitimize its opponents or justify its own rights violations. Restricting the definition of terrorism to non-state actors also has the effect of erasing acts of state "terrorism."
