Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense met separately in Riyadh on Monday the Chiefs-of-Staff of the countries participating in the Military Islamic Alliance on the occasion of holding their first meeting.
During the meetings, he emphasized the importance of coordinating the strategic efforts among the Islamic countries in confronting and countering terrorism, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The Chiefs-of-Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Military Alliance member countries underscored the importance of the military’s role in fighting terrorism, coordinating military efforts, exchanging information, and planning and training of alliance countries personnel, Saudi daily Alriyadh reported.
They also vowed determination to intensify their efforts to fight terrorism through the promotion of joint work depending on the ability of the Member States, and by the desire of every Member State to participate in any process or program within the framework of the military alliance of the Islamic center to fight terrorism, according to the mechanisms of the organization without tampering with the sovereignty of Member States.
The Chiefs-of-Staff called for taking all necessary measures and developing policies and standards and preventive legislation to combat the finance of terrorism and stand firm against terrorist financing crimes.
This came in the Riyadh Declaration final statement of the first meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the Military Alliance of the Islamic countries to fight terrorism, which was held in Riyadh Monday.
The Chiefs-of-Staff further stressed the importance of teamwork and strategic perspective to counter terrorism and extremism, noting that terrorism poses a continuing threat to peace, security and stability, and that the global phenomenon of extremism and terrorism has no religion or homeland.
The meeting agreed on the importance of activating the intellectual security against terrorism through coordinating efforts to study the terrorist ideology and consolidate the values of tolerance, dialogue and renunciation of hatred and incitement to violence.
They stressed the important role of the media in the fight against terrorism by addressing sedition, division, extremism and violence, and to establish the tolerant values of Islam and refrain from promoting terrorism.
Separately, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz met at the Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Monday with British Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon, SPA reported.
During the meeting, they discussed areas of cooperation between the two countries, especially in the field of defense, in addition to reviewing the latest developments of regional and international situations and efforts exerted towards them, including the fight against terrorism and extremism.
The meeting was attended by a number of senior officials.
