LONDON, 17 January 2006 — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal outlined Saudi Arabia’s position as one of the global partners in the fight against terrorism in a keynote speech yesterday. He said that Saudi Arabian leaders strongly believe that international cooperation was crucial for fighting terrorism.

Prince Saud and the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made the opening speeches at a two-day conference on global terrorism, sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Embassy, at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Prince Saud said that the will and resolve to fight terrorism must begin at home. The national resolve must then be extended to a universal collective “because no country can afford to stand on the sidelines.”

Prince Saud pointed out that in 2004, 53 percent of terrorist incidents around the globe occurred outside the Middle East. This included the current violence in Iraq.

“Extremism neither recognizes national borders nor does it differentiate among people on the basis of their religion, creed or color,” said the foreign minister.

Setting out the measures that Saudi Arabia had already taken on the home front against terrorism, Prince Saud said the Kingdom recognized that it had to confront directly intolerance and “those who would sow the seeds of hatred and violence in our mosques and schools.” He continued, “This is a struggle that we are determined to win and cannot afford to lose.”

He emphasized the importance of denying the terrorists funds to carry out their attacks and of preventing certain countries from providing safe havens for them. He also advocated criminalizing those who harbor terrorists or allow them to abuse asylum laws as well as people who use the Internet as a means of propaganda or recruitment.

“Terrorists are cynically exploiting legitimate causes and desperate conditions to foster hatred and fill their ranks with recruits,” said the prince.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a case in point.

“The illegal and unjust policy of Israel in the occupied territories, which has resulted in constant humiliation and suffering for the Palestinian people, is breeding anger and frustration,” the foreign minister said. “This conflict must be addressed and resolved justly in the interest of a peaceful world.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw agreed that, as Prime Minister Tony Blair had repeatedly argued, “we have to right the wrongs, in Palestine and elsewhere, which are exploited so skillfully and relentlessly by the preachers of hatred and violence.”

Straw acknowledged the Kingdom’s vital role in its response to the terrorist threat.

“Their counterterrorism achievements over the last two years have been striking — not just the disruption of Al-Qaeda networks, but crucially also the winning of hearts and minds and the mobilization of Saudi society against the extremists.”

Straw said that terrorists have in the last decade combined global ambition, reach and powerful means in an unprecedented way. Their aim, he said, is no longer overturning one regime or government, but rather the entire world.

There was a need to cooperate at an international and multilateral level to share evidence, to disrupt terrorist networks and to cut off sources of financing.

“If we want to show people the emptiness of the terrorist rhetoric then we must be consistent when fighting terrorism — both internationally and domestically — in upholding those values and freedoms we have set out to defend,” said Straw.

Referring to concerns about increased security measures around the world and the perceived encroachment on personal liberties, Straw said that at the most basic level, measures which protected innocent civilians from an attack supported one of the most basic human rights of all — the right to be alive — and they protected people’s ability to enjoy fully their other rights.

“Equally we respect and promote human rights not only because it is the correct thing to do but because it is one of the most effective ways to undermine the terrorists,” said the British foreign secretary.