(Communicated by the Foreign Minister’s Bureau)
Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman met today (Wednesday 16 June 2014) in Nairobi with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
During their meeting, FM Liberman stressed the special importance of the visit to Kenya, which is taking place on the backdrop of the severe terrorist attacks that took place in Kenya over the past two weeks that resulted in the deaths of dozens of innocent people and the abduction of ten women.
FM Liberman told President Kenyatta that the State of Israel is a true friend of Kenya, and that Israel condemns these terror attacks as well as terrorism in general in the strongest terms possible and stands alongside the citizens of Kenya in these difficult times.
President Kenyatta also expressed his support of Israel and expressed the hope that that the abducted Israeli teenagers would be released soon.
FM Liberman stated that he will act as soon as possible to get the Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab militant groups added to the blacklist of terror organizations in accordance with Israeli law.
FM Liberman told President Kenyatta that in fact we are dealing together with an axis of evil that stretches from the Middle East to West and East Africa, and all these organizations, such as ISIS in Iraq, Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, Boko Haram in West Africa and Al-Shabaab in East Africa are part of a global Jihad network. FM Liberman noted that the international community continues to hold endless discussions on the issue that in most cases result in mere theoretical condemnations by international institutions, while the terrorist organizations have established a single coordinated global network that operates almost without hindrance.
According to FM Liberman, countries in these regions must take their fate into their own hands and not rely on outside help, because with all due respect and appreciation to the international community, the reality in Syria, Libya and Iraq has demonstrated that the international community has not developed adequate tools to provide a quick and effective response to the horror of global terrorism threats. FM Liberman proposed to President Kenyatta that these countries should create a common mechanism for the exchange of information that would also be able provide a swift and effective response to those threats.
Additionally, FM Liberman instructed the Israeli delegation to the UN to ensure that the issue of the abducted Israeli teenagers will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Security Council to be held on 24 June 2014, and raised the issue in the phone conversations he continues to hold with his counterparts around the world.