Mnuchin met His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.
“This visit underscores the robust ties between the State of Qatar and the United States, and included meetings with HE the Minister of Finance Ali Sherif al-Emadi and other high-level Qatari officials to discuss further opportunities for expanded co-operation.
“The US and Qatar have a shared understanding that the improvements initiated in the past several months, outlined in the July 11, 2017 memorandum of understanding between the two countries on counter-terrorism financing co-operation, form the first step of what must be a sustained and enduring campaign to counter terrorist financing, with a strong emphasis on threats posed by Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front, ISIS, and other terrorist organisations.”
The US Secretary of the Treasury said: “We agreed to enhance our co-operation to counter the financing of terrorism in key areas of mutual concern including by substantially increasing the sharing of information on terrorist financiers in the region, placing greater emphasis on charitable and money service business sectors in Qatar to prevent terrorists from continuing to use those sectors for illicit financing purposes, developing a Qatari domestic designations regime in line with international standards and taking joint actions against terrorist financiers. We affirm that the United States and Qatar will significantly increase our co-operation on these issues to ensure that Qatar is a hostile environment for terrorist financing”.
HE Finance Minister al-Emadi said: “Our talks with Secretary Mnuchin have been highly productive, and underline our nations shared determination to eradicate terrorism wherever it takes root. We agreed to further our high level of joint co-operation to counter terror financing in key areas of our mutual concern. Qatar is working closely with the United States to enforce financial sanctions against ISIS, AQAP and other terrorist groups. The MoU signed in July represents a commitment from Qatar to strengthen our combined counter-terrorism efforts with the United States through shared intelligence and co-ordination between government agencies. This is a clear indicator of our long-standing political commitment to combating money laundering and terror financing”.