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US Treasury Secretary to Saudis: We need to redouble our counter-terrorism efforts

June 18, 2014 at 12:00 pm

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said at a joint press conference in Jeddah Tuesday with his Saudi counterpart Ibrahim al-Assaf that developments in Iraq indicate the need for redoubling the two countries’ counter-terrorism efforts, The Emirati news agency reported.

The US official said that he discussed with Saudi officials the need of Iraqi leaders to put their differences aside and effectively coordinate to confront terorrist groups, including ISIS.

He added that his talks addressed the strengthening of cooperation not only in Iraq and Syria, but also in Afganistan, Pakistan and terrorist groups such as Hezbollah.

Lew stressed on the need for working with Riyadh to counter these threats, describing joint cooperation with Saudi Arabia is this respect as “strategic”, pointing out that it reached a level of exchanging information.

Saudi Deputy King Salman bin Abdulaziz received Lew in Jeddah on Tuesday and discussed means to boost bilateral relations in a manner that serves the mutual interests of both countries, the Saudi news agency reported.