The Director General of National Security and Territorial Surveillance, Abdellatif Hammouchi, received today, Monday, Alexandre Zouev, the new Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, who is on a working visit to the Kingdom.

According to a statement from the DGSN-DGST joint office, the two parties discussed emerging challenges related to the rise in terrorist risks in several hotspots around the world, including the Sahel and Sahara region, the Horn of Africa, Syria and Afghanistan, as well as ways to strengthen cooperation and mutual assistance between Morocco and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism in the area of preventing violent extremism and mechanisms to address it.

The two sides also examined ways to coordinate counter-terrorism initiatives at regional and international levels, as well as mechanisms to expand these initiatives to include areas of cooperation related to securing major sporting events against terrorist risks and threats.

The statement specifies that the new Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism expressed his wish to learn about Morocco's security experience in the fight against terrorism, which he described as important and necessary to strengthen international cooperation in order to combat terrorist organizations and deprive them of any refuge, rear base, source of funding or pool for recruitment and indoctrination.

The communiqué concludes that this meeting, which is part of the commitment of the DGSN-DGST cluster to strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms in the security field, reflects the growing importance of the Kingdom as an essential and reliable partner in international initiatives and UN efforts to combat terrorism and extremism.