CAIRO // Global action is needed to counter other extremist groups in the region as well as ISIL, Egypt said on Saturday.
“Ultimately this extremist ideology is shared by all terrorist groups. We detect ties of cooperation between them and see a danger as it crosses borders,” foreign minister Sameh Shukri said after talks with the US secretary of state John Kerry in Cairo.
“We believe that rejecting terrorism is a collective responsibility of all members of the international community. There should be definite steps to achieve this target,” Mr Shukri said.
Egypt’s call for international action could bolster Mr Kerry’s bid to gather regional support for the US president Barack Obama’s plan to strike at ISIL on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier where it controls territory.
Mr Kerry said on Saturday that Egypt, seen as the intellectual centre of the Arab world, has a critical role to play in countering ISIL’s ideology.
He said the United States wanted Egypt to use its leading Islamic authority Al Azhar, a 1,000-year-old seat of religious learning, to send a message of moderation across the Middle East.
“As an intellectual and cultural capital of the Muslim world, Egypt has a critical role to play in publicly renouncing the ideology ISIL disseminates,” Mr Kerry said.
The US diplomat said Egypt was on the “frontline of the fight against terrorism, particularly when it comes to fighting extremist groups in Sinai”.
Mr Kerry said the US government supported Egypt’s campaign against the Sinai militants, who have killed scores of policemen and soldiers.
“That is why in an effort to support, we announced last month the delivery” of Apache helicopters, he said.
Egyptian security officials say they face a threat from Egyptian militants based across the border in Libya and from the Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, Egypt’s most dangerous militant group. Both are linked to or inspired by ISIL.
“We are working with international efforts to combat terrorism whether in Libya or Iraq or any other Arab country,” Mr Shukri said.
Cairo has also declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, accusing it of being behind a spate of attacks against security forces since the movement’s Mohammed Morsi was removed from the presidency by the military last July following mass protests against his rule.
Mr Kerry on Thursday won backing for a “coordinated military campaign” against ISIL from the UAE and fellow GCC members, as well as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
But it is not yet clear what role individual nations will play.
He also urged Gulf Arab foreign ministers to suppress all financing of ISIL, including private donations.
The United States also called on each country to work with clerics to convey the message that ISIL’s ideas are contrary to Islam, and to use their influence on regional television stations to broadcast anti-extremist programming.
* Reuters and Agence France-Presse
