Washington requests from Algeria the list of suspected ISIL members

The United States and Algeria have again pledged to work together to stamp out the plague of terrorism, after talks in Washington between US Secretary of state John Kerry and Algerian foreign affairs Minister Ramtane Lamamra.

“Algeria, which has paid a heavy toll to terrorism, will never bow in front of this scourge,” Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said at the opening of the discussions.

“Terrorism knows no boundaries, has no creed, no religion and targets all nations,” he added.

But he called for more intelligence sharing from the United States in the fight against Islamist terrorist groups and greater coordination among regional law enforcement agencies as well as for border monitoring.

Extremist Jihadist violence has plagued the vast Sahel-Sahara region since the 2011 overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, prompting a French-led military intervention in Algeria’s southern neighbour Mali in January 2013 after Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups seized control of the country’s north.

Lamamra said Algeria was committed to working with all its partners “to stand in the way of this peril, and to eradicate this scourge”.

One of Algeria’s major concerns was the situation in the Sahel, where “terrorism, human-trafficking, drug-trafficking and all kinds of criminal activities have woven their webs,” he said.

This threatened “the stability and very existence of the peoples and states of the area.”

 “This is a time when peace and self-determination are facing more complex threats than ever before,” Kerry acknowledged.

The US secretary of state also officially requested from the Algerian side the supply of the list of suspected ISIL extremists if any held by the Algerian security services as part of the ongoing widespread fight against this terrorist organization as declared recently by US President Barack Obama in a speech to the nation in the aftermath of the latest worrying developments in Syria and Iraq where advancing ISIL insurgents seized large swathes of territory in both countries.

He said one of the ways to fight terrorism was to help create jobs and ensure stability in people’s lives.

“Those who offer the violence that comes with terrorism don’t offer jobs, they don’t offer education, they don’t offer health care, they don’t have a programme to pull a country together.”

Such terror groups are in direct “confrontation with modernity,” he warned.

The United States, Kerry said, wanted to partner with Algeria to build a more robust defense relationship and help secure and strengthen borders in the region.

He also vowed that the United States would work with Algeria to try to stem the unrest in the lawless Sahel region, which stretches across several North African nations.

“We are grateful, very grateful, for Algeria’s efforts in Mali and Niger, which underscore Algeria’s constructive role in regional stability not only in the east, but to the south”, Kerry added.