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Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to our colleagues today for your briefings.
The 1267, 1373, and 1540 Committees play important and complementary roles in assessing and countering terrorist threats, terrorist activities, and in stopping support for terrorism in general. Over the past year, the global terrorist threat has evolved, with increased attacks by ISIS, its affiliates, and its supporters. ISIS branches and affiliates have expanded their influence from Iraq and Syria to now reaching across the globe.
Yet, despite this increase in attacks and influence, we are disappointed that, since the beginning of the year, the 1267 Committee has only designated two individuals. It is important that the Committee take action to designate ISIS affiliates to keep them from taking up the mantle of a diminished ISIS core. With this is mind, we hope the hold placed on our nominations of Jund al Khalifa Tunisia and its leader, introduced with the support of our Tunisian colleagues, will be lifted soon. The work of the 1267 Committee relies on that of the Monitoring Team, which takes stock of the threat posed by ISIS and al-Qa’ida. We thank the team for their reports.
On 1373, the upcoming renewal of the Council’s mandate for the Counterterrorism Committee’s Executive Directorate, CTED, will further CTED’s role as a key platform for discussions on current and emerging terror threats. We continue to watch closely the untenable situation of approximately 10,000 suspected foreign terrorist fighters and their associated family members who are in displacement camps or detention facilities in Syria and Iraq, without adequate humanitarian assistance or human rights protections. We call on all Member States to repatriate and, as appropriate, investigate, prosecute, rehabilitate, and reintegrate their nationals, and to support relevant efforts in this regard, including in the UN Office of Counterterrorism.
Another growing threat is racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, or REMVE. The United States government uses the term “REMVE” to encompass the potentially unlawful use or threat of force or violence in furtherance of ideological agendas derived from bias, often related to race or ethnicity, held by the actor against others or a given population group. In the Human Rights Council in February this year, Secretary-General Guterres noted that white supremacy movements, which are a subset of REMVE, are becoming a transnational threat. We have even seen some U.S.-based domestic terrorists attempt to establish links with likeminded foreign individuals and organizations, which highlights the need for further cooperation between our governments to identify and put an end to this threat.
Mr. President, areas of cooperation among the 1267, 1373, and 1540 Committees are explicitly encouraged by this Council to advance our broader counter-terrorism efforts. In particular, resolutions 1810, 1977, and 2325, reiterate the need to increase ongoing cooperation between the 1540 Committee and other subsidiary bodies, including through “enhanced information sharing, coordination on visits to countries within their respective mandates, technical assistance and other issues of relevance to all three committees.” The 1540 Committee is especially important in this regard since it requires states not just to prevent terrorists from acquiring WMD-related assets, but also to prevent non-state actors like private companies and individuals who might unwittingly or otherwise enable terrorist acquisition from doing so.
During the upcoming 1540 comprehensive review and mandate renewal, the United States will prioritize the full implementation of states’ obligations under resolution 1540 by improving the functionality and credibility of the Committee, empowering its Group of Experts, and enhancing its support to assistance and outreach-related activities. The upcoming 1540 mandate renewal also provides an opportunity to increase areas of coordination between these three committees. In particular, we seek to improve the capacity of the 1540 Committee to assist states in responding to the rapid advances in science, that would enable non-state actors to acquire, more easily and more rapidly, related emerging technologies for WMD-related purposes.
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This regular meeting and sharing of information regarding current and emerging non-state proliferation threat trends among the 1267, 1373, and 1540 Committees is extraordinarily important in combating terrorism, including potential terrorist access to WMD, across the globe. The United States will continue to work closely with our partners on this Council and in the larger UN membership to combat and end terrorism in all its forms.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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