The eve of the G20 summit hosted by Turkey which ended yesterday was very disturbing and dominated the atmosphere of the summit and those present after the bad news which came from Paris where the terrorist attacks targeted the French capital and left hundreds dead and wounded. At the same time these attacks have cast a shadow on the agenda of the summit as well as the bilateral meetings held by the leaders and it is not possible to move forward in combatting terrorism without handling the fundamental issue that is the Syrian crisis. This is what the French president was talking about when he said that the Paris attacks were “planned in Syria”, which has become geographically linked to the expansion of terrorist operations as long as its environment remains effectively untouched. Therefore the political movement overtook all others despite the fact that the summit is essentially an economic one; however, when has economic growth been possible in the absence of world peace? The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques reiterated this in his speech yesterday when he said “The lack of political stability and security is a hindrance to our efforts to strengthen global economic growth and unfortunately our region suffers from a number of crises”. This is also what the Saudi monarch emphasised at the same summit convened in Australia last year when he said that “The strong link between economic growth and global peace is obvious to all; it is not possible to achieve one without the other”.

Since the expansion of beastly terrorism is becoming the biggest enemy of every country in the world, it is natural that the most prominent decision that the G20 summit issued would be regarding this common concern. Participating countries agreed that the rise in terrorist acts will demolish international peace and security and efforts to strengthen the global economy. Consequently, they decided not to link terrorism with religion, nationality or ethnicity and to continue to fight terrorism through a set of measures including the stopping of terrorist funds flow and combatting terrorism through intelligence cooperation, monitoring communication via the internet. They also said that Syria is an example of countries which have destabilised the region and that the international community is obliged to act seriously in order to end the crisis in it and that all countries of the world are requested to contribute to the solution of the refugee crisis.