Arab states move towards fighting money laundering

Jan Louis Fort, the chairman of the special work unit on fighting money laundering which takes Paris as a headquarters stressed yesterday that some 10 countries from the Middle East and North Africa will form a group to support its backing for fighting illegal money flows.

However, the Arab states gives special interest to monitoring organizations which deal with the "transfer system" which is widely used in the third world with the aim to fighting terrorism and money laundering.

Fort said that the laundering fighting unit also hope to announce new steps against workers in the field of money transfer, especially those supporting terrorism and great drug traffickers and organized crime gangs.

The unit has representatives from 31 countries and issued 50 recommendations through which it defined the international standards to fighting dirty money and misusing of the financial system by al-Qaida organization.

Fort -- a former member in the Central Bank of France -- said that the new Arab initiative expands the sphere of the unity work to new areas.

Worthy mentioning that all greater and important states in the Middle East and North Africa will take part in the inaugural meeting of the Arab group which is due to be held in Bahrain on November 29 and 30.

One Arab official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that 14 countries might join the new group in Bahrain's meeting.

Investigators said that actual smuggling of money is increasingly growing as smugglers seek to undermine the tough bank restrictions.

Fort said that despite what has been achieved in the Middle East, the Asia and Indian ocean area is a source of concern. Each of Nigeria, the Coke Island, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nauru were classified on the black list in this regard.