An Arab League official says that member countries who have signed the counter-terrorism agreement will abide by the recent Egyptian ruling that considers the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, the Saudi Okaz newspaper reports.
After applying the Egyptian ruling to all Arab countries, all will be banned from offering any kind of financial or logistic support to the terrorist Brotherhood group. Any activity supporting the Brotherhood would thus be considered in violation of Arab agreements combating terrorism.
The original counter-terrorism agreement was signed in April 1998 during the joint meeting for Arab ministers of Justice and Interior Affairs.
An Arab League general secretariat source told Okaz that there are two agreements to combat terrorism signed by all Arab countries, which is the Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism in 1998 and another agreement on counter terrorism funding and anti-money laundry in 2013.
The source said that voting mechanism regarding the closing statements of meetings and agreements was amended. Decision are passed through majority not consensus. Any countries that oppose or have reservations over the statement or a paragraph will not commit to them. The mechanism also applies to the agreement on anti-support of the terrorist groups on which Arab countries signed.
Regarding hardships that prevent applying the Egyptian decision at some Arab countries, the source told Okaz that some individuals and NGOs in some countries have been deceived by “sweet talk” of the Muslim Brotherhood at the pre-Arab Spring era. These NGOs offered huge funds to the Brotherhood. Convincing them to stop supporting the group will be hard and needs efforts by the Arab countries to monitor financial transactions to the group or any other kind of support.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
