Qatar attaches great importance to countering of extremism and terrorism and the country is keen to participate in and support all international efforts in this field, a senior Qatari official has said.

Delivering a speech, Qatar's ambassador to Belgium and head of Qatari missions to EU and Nato Abdulrahman bin Mohamed al-Khulaifi told a seminar on "Combating Terrorism and Violent Extremism" that Qatar was committed to strengthening its national legislations to combat the phenomena of extremism and terrorism.

The seminar was organised by The International Centre for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE), in cooperation with Middle East Center for Dialogue in Brussels.

Al-Khulaifi highlighted the significant contributions made by the State of Qatar at the regional and international levels in strengthening the efforts of the international community in confronting and containing of terrorism and extremism. He praised the efforts of Qatar in combating the causes and roots of terrorism through education and economic empowerment in places of conflict such as Syria, Iraq and others.

He referred to national initiatives such as 'Education Above All Foundation', Silatech Foundation, and other projects that support Arab youth to prevent them from being recruited by extremist and terrorist organisations.

The Director of the ICSVE Anne Speckhardt praised Qatar's efforts in combating terrorism and violent extremism, and its support to the centre in this field.

The seminar was attended by the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, the Director of the ICSVE Anne Speckhardt, Chief Analyst at the Belgian Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis Gert Vercauteren, the Belgian Federal Police Representative Beatrice Boarmon and Representative of the Dutch police Miriam Bar.

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