The Kingdom was represented in this session by a delegation led by Mohamed Ait Ouali, Morocco’s ambassador to Cairo and Permanent Representative to the Arab League, and notably included Mohamed Moufakir, wali director of international cooperation at the Ministry of Interior and Prefect of Police, Mohammed Dkhissi, Central Director of the Judicial Police, vice-president of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for Africa and Head of the Liaison Office at the General Secretariat of the Arab Interior Ministers Council.
At the opening of the conclave, Saudi Arabia's Minister of the Interior and Honorary President of the Council, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz, emphasized in an address that the security threats facing the Arab world called for the continued strengthening of regional cooperation efforts, the development of effective policies and the implementation of common strategies to address them.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers, Mohamed Ben Ali Koman, reviewed the main activities carried out by the General Secretariat last year, including the conference on cybersecurity and crimes linked to new technologies, announcing at the same time the imminent launch of the automated application of the criminal prosecution system, enabling member states to access the database and automatically carry out procedures linked to requests for pre-trial detention.
Portugal's Minister of the Interior, Margarida Blasco, who was invited to take part in the meeting as part of the drive to strengthen police cooperation between the European Union and Arab countries, said that the use of modern technologies had complicated the issue of preventing and combating crime, requiring the exchange of knowledge and expertise, and working together to meet these challenges.
In this respect, she stressed the importance of security cooperation between the European and Arab areas.
At the meeting, the State of Kuwait assumed the Presidency of the 42nd session of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers, succeeding the State of Qatar.
On the agenda for this event were the eleventh draft progress plan for the Arab strategy to combat the illicit use of narcotics and psychotropic substances, a draft seventh progress plan for the Arab civil protection strategy, and a draft second progress plan for the Arab strategy to combat cybercrime.
The Arab Ministers of the Interior also examined the report of the Secretary-General of the Council on the work of the General Secretariat between the 41st and 42nd sessions of the Council, the report of the President of the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences on the work of this institution during the same period, as well as the recommendations of conferences and meetings held within the framework of the General Secretariat during the year 2024 and the results of joint meetings with Arab and international bodies during the same year.
In addition to the Ministers of the Interior, the meeting was attended by high-level security delegations and representatives from the League of Arab States, Interpol, the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences.
MAP: 16 February 2025
