RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology is planning to expand its work with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center to combat violent agitators worldwide.

Mansour Al-Shammari, Etidal’s secretary-general, held discussions on Tuesday in Riyadh with Vladimir Voronkov, under-secretary-general of the UNCCT, on various joint measures, including the adoption of advanced technology.

Voronkov, in a media statement, said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a pioneer in the field of combating extremism at the local and global levels and will continue its pioneering efforts in this regard in the coming period because extremism is a continuing threat.”

He added that no country was immune to terrorism. “Therefore, international cooperation is an important factor for success in this matter, and this region is very important to us.”

In April 2022, Etidal and the UNCCT signed a memorandum of understanding to tackle the scourge.

Regarding the MoU, the UNCCT’s Director Jahangir Khan said: “We are working on developing cooperation programs that will have a global aspect, especially in the most important matters such as research and development, and we are very much looking forward to developing more programs in this memorandum of understanding.”

Raffi Gregorian, deputy to Voronkov, said during his visit to Etidal: “It is really great to be here in person and really excited about some of the things we learned today, about the ways in which we can take cooperation to the next level. And helping many other member states deal with these problems.”