US, Qatar hold first counterterrorism dialogue

U.S. and Qatari officials met in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to hold the first counterterrorism dialogue, the State Department said in a statement.

The officials reviewed Qatar's positive progress in implementing the U.S.-Qatar counterterrorism Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in Doha on July 11 by the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohamed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the department added.

The U.S. delegation, which included officials from the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Justice and Treasury, was led by Counterterrorism Ambassador Nathan A. Sales. Chairman of Qatar's National Counter Terrorism Committee, Major General Abdul Aziz al-Ansari led the 11-member Qatari delegation, which also included Dr. Mutlaq al-Qahtani, Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Counterterrorism and Conflict Mediation, and officials from the Ministry of the Interior, the State Security Bureau, and the National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Finance Committee.

"The MOU laid out our mutual commitments for increasing information sharing, disrupting terrorism financing flows, and intensifying counterterrorism activities. During the dialogue, both sides affirmed the progress made to date on implementing the MOU and committed to expanding our counterterrorism partnership," the department said, adding that regional terrorism threats, counterterrorism financing, regulation of the charitable sector, information sharing, and aviation security were discussed in the meeting.

"Building on this progress, the United States and Qatar will deepen their counterterrorism cooperation further, as exemplified by the recent visits to Doha of Secretary of State Tillerson (Oct. 22-23) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (Oct. 29-30). Both visits served to underscore the broad, robust ties between Qatar and the United States, especially in reaffirming the two countries' joint efforts to defeat terrorism," the statement concluded.