John Bolton To UNSC Terror Committees

Statement in the Joint Public Meeting on the Counter-Terrorism Committee, Al Qaeda/Taliban Committee and Counter-Proliferation Committee in the Security Council

Ambassador John Bolton, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United
Nations

New York City
February 22, 2006

In my national capacity, I would also like to thank all three chairmen for their dedicated leadership in our counterterrorism efforts. Their hard work and dedication, along with that of their committees' staffs, are essential to the success of the Council's effort to combat terrorism. The Council must remain focused and resolute in combating the threat of terrorism, while adapting flexibly to new challenges. The Council's three committees must be proactive and action-oriented, keeping in mind always the importance of achieving concrete results in the fight against terrorism.

Today's presentations provide various examples of initiatives these committees and their staff bodies are pursuing, often in collaboration with one another. Expanding such collaboration is essential. We applaud the joint initiative to rationalize the reporting that the three committees request from states. We also commend the work of the three staff bodies to coordinate joint visits and outreach to states, and urge them to do more. All three presentations note efforts to enhance cooperation with other international and regional organizations. We urge the committees and their staffs to collaborate to ensure that these important efforts reinforce each other.

Above all, these committees play an essential role in monitoring states' implementation of the counterterrorism obligations the Council has established. As they proceed, all three committees should examine the important issue of non-compliance. The CTC and the 1540 Committee should develop concrete standards for measuring states' efforts to implement Resolutions 1373, 1624, and 1540, respectively. The 1267 Committee should develop standards for measuring states' implementation and enforcement of the 1267 sanctions regime.

Finally, we encourage both the 1267 Committee and the CTC to devote more attention to the elements of the resolutions under which they operate that do not relate to terrorism financing. Resolution 1624 contains important language concerning the need for states to deny terrorists safe haven, and it is important for both bodies to focus more intensively on the provisions of the resolutions relating to terrorist travel, safe havens, and arms bans.

I would now like to comment specifically on each presentation.

Counter-Terrorism Committee

Chairman Loj, the United States appreciates your effective leadership and welcomes your report. The CTC and its CTED play an essential role in ensuring that states implement their obligations under Resolution 1373, and we welcome your proposals for ways in which the CTC and its CTED can achieve concrete results.

We look forward to working closely with you on the important task of identifying best practices relevant to the implementation of Resolution 1373. These best practices can be an important way to give states a better sense of the steps the CTC expects them to take to implement Resolution 1373.

We welcome the CTC's work to develop a more pragmatic, focused approach for linking states that need assistance to enhance their implementation of Resolution 1373. As not all needs can be met, we think the CTC and its CTED can play an important role in identifying priority needs for assistance and conveying that information to donors. Above all, as CTED implements the CTC's new policy on technical assistance, the CTC must strike the right balance between facilitating the delivery of technical assistance and monitoring implementation of Resolution 1373. The CTC should keep in mind that work to facilitate technical assistance must occur in the context of monitoring states' implementation of their binding obligations under Resolution 1373.

Finally, I appreciate your comments on the Committee's work to facilitate states' implementation of Resolution 1624. The United States will endeavor to provide the Committee with information soon about our efforts to implement that new resolution.

1267 Al Qaeda/Taliban Committee

Ambassador Mayoral, the 1267 Committee has made important strides in the last 120 days, and the United States commends your work. We welcome the Committee's successful collaboration with Interpol and the concrete results we have seen from that initiative. The new measures you described in your briefing will provide important tools to law enforcement officials around the world and will strengthen the sanctions regime, especially the travel ban. The United States hopes the 1267 Committee will continue its robust dialogue with other international and regional organizations in an effort to replicate the successes with Interpol. We also hope the CTC and the 1540 Committee can use the 1267 Committee's initiative as a model for pursuing comparable efforts.

In your briefing, you spoke about the 1267 Committee's important work with Afghanistan and the Afghan Governments reconciliation process. The United States fully supports the reconciliation process and we are pleased the Committee is strengthening its dialogue with Afghanistan on this matter.

Finally, I should note that the Monitoring Team is an invaluable resource for the Committee and the United States appreciates the Team's professional and high-quality analysis of all aspects of the 1267 sanctions regime. We look forward to the Committee's discussion on the Monitoring Team's Fourth Report.

1540 Committee

Chairman Burian, thank you for your presentation and for your accomplishments since you assumed your position in January. Resolution 1540 is a significant tool for addressing the threat to international peace and security posed by the proliferation of WMD, their means of delivery and related materials, and we applaud the Committee's efforts to monitor and promote implementation of the resolution. In particular, we appreciate the Committee's work to examine the additional information states have provided on their implementation of resolution 1540 and look forward to the Committee's report to the Council on the results of its evaluation of states' reports. We share your concern that nearly 70 Member States have yet to report to the Committee and welcome your proposals for reaching out to those states to encourage them to report.

We agree that the Committee's mandate should be continued, and we are considering carefully what the Committee's future mandate should entail. We look forward to participating actively in discussions on this issue in the near future.

Released on February 22, 2006

ENDS

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