A senior Saudi official told an international conference on security on Saturday that the "terrorist" threat remains and urged global co-operation to combat it. "The danger of terrorism and terrorists still persists and affects several countries," Prince Turki bin Mohammed al-Saud of the foreign ministry told delegates at the opening of the two-day event.
"We must face up to it using all means and at all levels, local, regional and international. "Terrorism threatens us all, without exception," Prince Turki said, calling for global action to "eradicate terrorist plans through co-ordination between specialised centres in the struggle against terrorism." Some 50 countries are represented at the gathering in Riyadh, which has been organised in conjunction with the United Nations.
In 2005, Saudi Arabia proposed creating in its capital an international anti-terrorism centre, a proposal that was approved in September 2011 by the UN General Assembly. Riyadh has pledged to finance the centre for three years at a cost of $10 million (7.5 million euros).
Between 2003 and 2006, the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom was targeted by a wave of attacks claimed by the extremist al Qaeda network, prompting a harsh crackdown by security forces. Al Qaeda franchises remain active in the region, especially in Iraq and Yemen where the Saudi and Yemeni branches of the network have united to form al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In August 2009, a suicide bomber from Yemen failed in an attempt to kill Saudi security chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef al-Saud.