DUBAI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The threat of religiously motivated terrorism would not disappear too soon in Iraq, Syria and Egypt, a former top diplomat of Egypt said here on Sunday.
Speaking at the one-day Arab Strategy Forum on the economic and political outlook for 2015, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's former minister of foreign affairs, said despite immense efforts by the current Egyptian government to stop terrorism attacks on the Sinai peninsula, Egypt still faces threats from the forbidden fraction of the Muslim brotherhood (MB). I do not expect this threat to vanish in 2015.
The former top diplomat also said the same danger would remain in Syria and Iraq next year. Both countries suffer from a civil war and from the rise of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group, consisting of Sunni Muslims, which has managed to occupy parts of the north in both countries.
Aboul Gheit's presentation was followed by United Arab Emirates (UAE) vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum whose government supports the current Egyptian government under president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Gheit said a strong nation building and strong economies in the Arab world were key to eradicate extremism and domestic terrorism.
In fighting the IS, Gheit said the Sunni population in Iraq must understand that the IS was not representing Sunni Islam or religion itself but that the group of local and foreign fighters who misuse religion as a means to spread terrorism.