(WASHINGTON, DC) - While in Tunis for the 21st session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council, Minister of Interior and Honorary President of the Council Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz called for better coordination of counterterrorism efforts throughout the Arab world.

The Council's 21st session focused primarily on the issue of terrorism in the Arab region and the efforts made by individual Arab states to combat and counteract the phenomenon. According to Prince Nayef, “this is because of the fact that the existing changes in the world necessitate us to achieve security for everyone who lives in the Arab countries.”

“This leads us to say that our security men are vigilant and efficient in meeting security challenges,” Prince Nayef continued. “However, it is painful to have some of our sons as tools of terrorism, but with the joint efforts by our scholars, intellectuals and mass media, we can confront this matter and purify our Islamic and Arab thought from all blemishes.”

In its efforts to confront terrorism, Saudi Arabia has questioned thousands of suspects, arrested more than 600 individuals, dismantled a number of Al-Qaeda cells, seized large quantities of arms caches and established two joint task forces with the United States.