Sisi remains focused on counterterrorism efforts: US report

CAIRO – 19 July 2017: President Abdel Fatah Al Sisi remains focused on counterterrorism efforts in Egypt, a report on global terrorism by the United States Department of State said on Wednesday.

The report stated that the Egyptian Armed Forces (EAF) continued the counterterrorism campaign against terrorist groups in North Sinai, which is called “Right of the Martyr”, to defeat the terrorist threat and prevent the establishment of a terrorist safe haven.

Egypt implemented two significant counterterrorism laws issued by presidential decree in 2015 and ratified by Parliament in 2016, including the “Terrorist Entities Law”, which established a mechanism for designating organizations or individuals as terrorist entities, the report said.

The report continued to speak positively about Egypt’s actions to improve its border security. At border crossings and airports, Egyptian authorities checked for the presence of known security features within travel documents.

According to the report, terrorist groups solicited funds using Twitter to finance terrorist activities in Egypt, relying on anonymous prepaid value cards.

The report also hailed the role of Egypt’s Dar Al-Iftaa, an official body that issues religious edicts, in countering violent extremism.

Egypt’s Dar Al-Iftaa has taken the lead in establishing a General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide to counter violent extremist religious messaging via religious channels. Dar Al-Iftaa sends scholars to engage communities considered vulnerable to violent messaging, trains new muftis, organizes international outreach and speaking tours throughout Muslim majority countries and the West, and publishes books and pamphlets to challenge the alleged religious foundations of violent extremist ideology.

Egypt also continues to participate in the Global Counterterrorism Forum, co-chairing (along with the United States) the Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Working Group.

Egypt holds a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council through the end of 2017, and it presides over the council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee. It is also a member of the African Union.

According to the report, the overall number of attacks against civilian targets declined through the middle of the year.