In a major strike against terrorism and terror funding, the UN Security Council has adopted a landmark resolution that calls for a global counter-terrorism strategy to identify ways to suppress terrorist financing. 

 

This comes at a critical time with recent attacks demonstrating that terror groups continue to have access to both legal and illegal sources of funding.

 

Hailing the new Security Council resolution as a landmark step in suppressing the funding of terror groups worldwide, UN’s counter-terrorism chief, Vladimir Voronkov, said that Resolution 2462 on Countering the Financing of Terrorism, pulls together previous resolutions to create a consolidated document that also covers several key emerging issues.

 

He was speaking via video-link from Rome, where he has been meeting specialist Italian law enforcement officials to discuss building closer ties to tackle the problem. 

 

Underscoring the necessity for strong collaboration and targeted efforts, in order to achieve "concrete results" in the fight against terrorism and terrorist financing, Voronkov said that the resolution calls for the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) – set up in 2017 to strengthen the organization’s ability to implement s global counter-terrorism strategy – to play a leading role in identifying ways to suppress terrorist financing.

 

Voronkov identified three priorities. The first concerns expanding the focus of the UNOCT to cover intelligence sharing, risk assessments and public-private partnerships; the second points to system-wide awareness-raising and the development of a comprehensive approach to the problem.

 

The UNOCT’s third priority is to work closely with the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental body which sets standards for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international finance system; and regional regulators.-TradeArabia News Service