Saudi vows new Islamic alliance 'will wipe terrorists from the earth'

Saudi Arabia's crown prince vowed to "pursue terrorists until they are wiped from the face of the earth", as officials from 40 Muslim countries gathered Sunday (November 26th) in the first meeting of an Islamic counter-terrorism alliance, AFP reported.

"In past years, terrorism has been functioning in all of our countries... with no co-ordination" among national authorities, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defence minister, said in his keynote address to the gathering in Riyadh.

"This ends today, with this alliance," he said.

The summit, which was held under the slogan "Allied Against Terrorism", is the first meeting of defence ministers and other senior officials from the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, which officially counts 41 countries and identifies as a "pan-Islamic unified front" against violent extremism.

The meeting in Riyadh brings together Muslim or Muslim-majority nations including Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Uganda, Somalia, Mauritania, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen and Turkey.

The alliance was announced in 2015 under the auspices of Prince Mohammed.

It aims to "mobilise and co-ordinate the use of resources, facilitate the exchange of information and help member countries build their own counter-terrorism capacity", said retired Pakistani general Raheel Sharif, who has been appointed commander-in-chief of the alliance.

Tightening noose around terror groups

The meeting, even though military in nature, stressed the need to fight terrorism on all fronts, said King Saud University political science professor Abdullah al-Dakhil.

These include fighting extremist ideology, terror groups' media efforts and their sources of funding, he told Al-Mashareq.

"The war on terrorism will not yield results if it is only waged militarily," he said, noting that there must be an integrated system for countering terrorism.

"Stopping the spread of terrorist ideology and monitoring the issue of fatwas is very necessary," al-Dakhil said.

Global efforts also should focus on cutting off the sources of funding for terror groups to curb their ability to recruit new members and buy weapons, he said.

Some of the alliance member states are already in a state of war against terror groups, military expert and former Saudi military attaché Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Shehri told Al-Mashareq.

"These efforts must be united to reach the desired result, particularly as terrorist groups are in contact with each other in all countries of the world," he said.

The Islamic counter-terrorism alliance could tighten the noose around these terror groups "significantly", he said.