News

Saudi Arabia intensifies measures to combat terrorism, money laundering

Thursday 28/February/2019 - 01:20 PM

Walid Mansour

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been fighting operations of terrorism financing, extremism and money laundering over the past two decades.

The Saudi Kingdom has also been on top of the countries that are effectively contributing to the international efforts against such crimes. These efforts are based on the Kingdom’s adherence to the teachings and regulations of the Islamic law, local systems, and international recommendations accordingly, all within efforts to make the world a safer place.

Last week, Saudi Public Prosecutor Saud al-Muajab asserted that Saudi Arabia plays a vital role in the fight against terrorism at the international level, referring to the measures taken by Riyadh domestically with the recently issued law on combating crimes and their financing.

Saudi Arabia realizes that combating money laundering became one of the biggest challenges facing the international community, especially after witnessing rapid development over the past years.

This drove the Saudi Kingdom to stipulate a set of strict laws and regulations that limit money laundering and terrorism financing. It also established a group of authorities and bodies that work within the system.

In June 2015, the Saudi Kingdom managed to get a membership at the the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), a regional group of FATF, as during the Plenary Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, FATF member countries unanimously supported Saudi Arabia’s promotion as an observer member.

To achieve this status, considerable efforts to implement legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system have been recognized by the FATF high-level mission that visited the Kingdom in early June 2015.

The President of FATF praised the Kingdom in its role to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism in particular, through the actions of the Anti-Money Laundering Permanent Committee.

Saudi Arabia also signed and ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism in 1999, furthermore, the Saudi Cabinet issued a decision on adherence to based on the 40 FATF Recommendations and was one of the first countries evaluated under this new methodology.

The Kingdom has enacted, approved and implemented many laws and procedures aimed at combating laundering, financing terrorism, mitigating the risks associated with it and drying up its sources.

It has also been keen to boost regional and international cooperation operations against terrorism and extremism, not to mention tracking and eradicating money laundering.

In May 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United States signed an agreement on the establishment of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), a collaborative approach to confronting new and evolving threats arising from terrorist financing to enhance existing tools and cooperation with partners in the Gulf to forcefully address evolving threats.