Washington warns against attacks, and commends efforts of Arab states
Regional-USA, Politics, 4/30/2004

In its annual report about terrorism the US Department Of State warned against large scale attacks targeting Americans and other targets in the world.

The terrorism- fighting coordinator at the department Koffer Black said upon reviewing the report on Thursday that al-Qaida organization under the chairmanship of al-Qaida organization is still planning for attacks.

The American warning came despite the report's remarks for 2003 to the slight decrease in the average of attacks directed to the American interests in comparison with the preceding year. The report said that some 190 " terrorist attacks" were launched resulted in killing 307 persons including 35 Americans while the preceding year witnessed 198 attacks in which 725 were killed including 27 Americans.

The report indicated an increase in international co-operation in fighting organizations that are considered by Washington as terrorist. It included a revision for these operations in more than 80 countries with a general revision of every country and the policies pursued in fighting terrorism.

The report commended the measures taken by the Arab states to fight terrorism despite the fact that many of them remained on the terrorism- sponsoring states, according to the American classification which remained the same that are seven states: Cuba, Iran, Northern Korea, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Iraq despite Washington's occupation of this country and toppling the rule of President Saddam Hussein.

The report mentioned Saudi Arabia and commended its efforts to fighting terrorism. This, however contradicts with the cool comments in the US reports for the previous year 2002 which confined to noting that Saudi Arabia continues to giving support for the "war against terrorism."

The report also indicated that Libya and Sudan reduced their support for terrorism but are still listed in the American terrorism list. Concerning Tripoli, the report said that despite the Libyan steps to fight terrorism, however, it has still contacts with terrorists agents it had dealt with in the past." The US also noted in its report that there are worrying aspects in Sudan, despite the notable improvement and the exchange of information between Khartoum and Washington in the terrorism fighting field.

The report included accusations against Syria and Iran of supporting organizations which carried out operations against Israel and the occupation forces in Iraq, despite the fact it admitted " a limited " cooperation shown by Syria in fighting terrorism and making efforts which " were not fully successful to control its borders with Iraq."

As in previous years, Iran, remained according to the report, the most active country in sponsoring terrorism. The report accused Tehran of collaborating with the republican guards of Saddam Hussein and supporting " Ansaar al-Islam" organization.

Previous Stories:
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  Arab League condemns US guarantees to Israel   (4/15/2004)
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