Bahrain meeting focuses on terrorist financing

MANAMA — Bahrain's foreign minister urged world leaders Sunday to do more to cut off funding for terrorist groups and prevent them from profiting from illegal businesses.

Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa made the comments at the start of a meeting in the Bahraini capita, Manama, aimed at bringing together financial experts to improve the fight against extremist fund-raising.

He urged delegates to set a path to ensure that financial institutions and charities cannot funnel funds to terrorist groups, and "put an end to their ability to smuggle goods and extort funds from commercial enterprises".

The head of the US Treasury Department's effort to undermine the Islamic State's finances, David Cohen, last month estimated the group was earning about $1 million a day from black market oil sales alone. It also generates cash from criminal enterprises such as extortion, bank robbery and kidnapping for ransom. Only a small amount of its funding is believed to come from outside donors.

The one-day gathering follows a meeting in Paris in September in which diplomats from around the world pledged to fight Islamic State militants "by any means necessary”.

It includes representatives from several Arab nations, Western countries including the United States, Britain and France, as well as China and Russia. International bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also participated.