Sisi to NAM summit: intensive international efforts needed to curb suicide

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has called for intensive international efforts to fight and uproot terror at the 17th Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Venezuela.

The world must stop terror groups from using erroneous thought and means to spread their ideology, and their sources of finance must be dried out, he said Saturday night in a speech delivered on his behalf by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on the 55th anniversary of the movement's establishment.

Venezuela assumes this year the rotating NAM presidency from Iran.

Leaders from the 120-nation group have gathered on the Caribbean island of Margarita for the two-day event. 

Political solutions are needed for the ongoing conflicts that terror groups exploit to enforce their presence and control nations, he added.

Amid all the challenges of today's world, terror remains the threat that does not differentiate among societies, and should be really serious about facing it, we must face it on a global level, not just within Islamic or developing societies as some claim, he said.

Developing nations, on the other hand, are facing serious challenges as a result of the global economic and financial crisis, the wide gap between advanced and developing nations, high poverty rates, social marginalization, asylum and immigration seekers, terror, organized crime and environmental challenges, he said.

Thus, national and regional efforts must be mobilized to confront such challenges, he added.

Amid such serious challenges, the world proceeds towards the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, while developing nations lack the potentials needed to reach such goals, as they require technology transfer, wider share of international trade and higher influx of investments, he said.

Egypt affirms the need for promoting the South-South cooperation mechanism and at the same time North-South cooperation to implement the sustainable development goals and wider participation on the part of the developing nations in the global economic governance structure, Sisi added.

Turning to regional conflicts, Sisi affirmed Egypt's solid stance towards the Palestinian people and their right to establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and lauded the NAM's support to the Palestinian people and denunciation of the Israeli occupation practices.

Egypt stands by the Libyan people at this critical juncture in their history and reaffirms its support to the Shukhairat agreement that culminated into the national reconciliation government, he said.

Egypt also works on stemming the regrettable bloodshed in Syria and calls for the immediate abidance by the complete ceasefire to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis and achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people namely a democratic change led by the people themselves while maintaining the territorial integrity of the nation in the face of the brutal forces of terror and increasing unacceptable foreign interference in the country's affairs, he said.

Concluding, he referred to Egypt's nomination of Mouchira Khattab for the top UNESCO post, expressing hope the next chief will be from the Arab bloc.

Khattab is capable of leading the organization and developing its work to materialize the aspirations of the NAM nations, he added.

Source: MENA