Egypt announces U.N. resolution to 'stop arming terrorists' approved

CAIRO – 2 Aug 2017: Under the leadership of Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta, the United Nations Security Council adopted on Wednesday Resolution 2370 to ban supplying terrorism organizations with weapons.

As Egypt chairs the UNSC, Egyptian Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta stated that arming terrorisms with weapons is considered a crime.

The Egyptian ambassador urged all U.N. member states to provide their full cooperation in implementing Resolution 2370 and said that the international community, represented by the U.N., should firmly confront this crime of supplying weapons to terrorists.

“Egypt has suffered, directly and indirectly, from the support of some countries for terrorism, and these countries supply terrorism with money and weapons”, Aboulatta added.

Aboulatta stressed the importance of banning and preventing the smuggling of weapons to terrorists via conflict zones.

The Egyptian ambassador ended his speech saying, “In conclusion, I stress that Egypt will always maintain its commitment to be at the forefront of the international community's efforts to defeat terrorism, while respecting international law, the rule of law and human rights”

The INTERPOL representative praised the Egyptian initiative to prevent the supplying of weapons to terrorists, saying: "The Egyptian initiative must be taken into consideration because of its ultimate importance."

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said earlier that the council will review sanctions imposed on various countries in order to evaluate their effectiveness, as well as follow up on the 2015 U.N. Resolution 2253, which states that the U.N. shall “prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer (to terrorists)…of weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment…or training related to military activities.”

He pointed out that this project comes within the framework of Egypt's presidency of counter-terrorism committee of the UN Security Council.

Following the conference, Abu Zeid stated that the resolution came as a result of the Egyptian delegation’s great efforts in New York during the three months since May.

This is the second time for Egypt to chair the U.N. Security Council since its non-permanent membership began in 2016.

Egypt chaired the UNSC for the first time in May 2016.