The US State Department today released its annual report on terrorism for 2016, which provides the annual assessment of trends and events in the field of international terrorism covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2016. On the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the report, which was posted on the department's internet website, said: Saudi Arabia continued to maintain a strong counterterrorism relationship with the United States and supported enhanced bilateral cooperation to ensure the safety of both U.S. and Saudi citizens within Saudi territories and abroad. Saudi Arabia remained a key member and active participant in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, as evidenced by its co-leading the Counter-ISIS Coalition's Counter-Finance Working Group (CIFG) alongside the United States and Italy. The Saudi government condemned ISIS's activities and participated in coalition military action to defeat the group in Syria and Iraq. The Saudi Arabian government continued to build and reinforce its capacity to counter terrorism and violent extremist ideologies ... Saudi Arabia maintained a high counterterrorism operational tempo, made a number of highly publicized arrests of terrorist suspects, and disrupted active terrorist cells across the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia ... expanded existing counterterrorism programs and rhetoric to address the phenomenon of returning foreign terrorist fighters; and leveraged terrorist finance provisions of its Law for Crimes of Terrorism and Terrorist Financing (CT Law) and Royal Decree A/44 to counter the funding of violent extremist groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere. The government also launched several new countering violent extremism (CVE) initiatives.
