US, Qatar hold first counter-terrorism dialogue

WASHINGTON: In a commitment to expand their counter-terrorism partnership, the United States and Qatar have held their first dialogue over it in Washington D.C.

The U.S. and Qatari officials discussed regional terrorist threats, counter-terrorism financing, regulation of the charitable sector, information sharing, and aviation security.

The U.S. State Department, in a statement, said, “ During the dialogue, the delegations reviewed Qatar’s positive progress in implementing the U.S.-Qatar counterterrorism Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in Doha on July 11 by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohamed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.”
 
“The MOU laid out our mutual commitments for increasing information sharing, disrupting terrorism financing flows, and intensifying counterterrorism activities,” the statement added.
 
The U.S. delegation, which included officials from the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Justice and Treasury, was headed by Nathan Sales, Coordinator for Counter-terrorism Ambassador .
 
The 11-member Qatari delegation was led by Major General Abdul Aziz al-Ansari, Chairman of Qatar’s National Counter Terrorism Committee, and included Dr Mutlaq al-Qahtani, Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Counter-terrorism and Conflict Mediation, and officials from the Ministry of Interior, the State Security Bureau, and the National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Finance Committee.
 
The United States and Qatar aim to deepen their counter-terrorism cooperation further, as exemplified by the recent visits to Doha of Secretary of State Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the statement said.

Both visits served to underscore the broad, robust ties between Qatar and the United States, especially in reaffirming the two countries’ joint efforts to defeat terrorism.