The United States sent a powerful message to other United Nations member countries: Join the fight against a vicious new brand of terrorism or risk becoming increasingly irrelevant and world becoming more unstable.
President Obama on Wednesday chaired a United Nations Security Council summit on combating the threat of foreign fighters, those homegrown recruits who travel to Syria to fight with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or other groups and could easily return to their home countries to carry out attacks.
Obama noted the summit was historic — only the sixth time in the United Nations’ 70 year history that world leaders had met “at a level like this” to decide how best to confront a common threat.
There are more than 15,000 foreign fighters from more than 80 nations who have traveled to Syria in recent years to fight for terrorists such as the al Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, as well as the Islamic State, he said.
“These terrorists believe our countries will be unable to stop them,” Obama told the meeting of world leaders. “The safety of our citizens demand that we do. And I’m here today to say that all of you who are committed to this urgent work will find a strong and steady partners in the United States of America.”
His comments followed the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous adoption of a resolution focused on stopping the flow of funds to foreign terrorist fighters and thwarting their efforts to travel across borders.
The resolution, which is legally binding, established new obligations nations must meet. All 15 members of the U.N. Security Council are required to “prevent and suppress the recruiting, organizing, transporting or equipping” of foreign terrorist fighters, as well as the financing of their travel or activities.
Nations must “prevent the movement of terrorists or terrorist groups” through their territory and ensure that their domestic laws allow for the prosecution of those who attempt to do so, Obama said.
“Eliminating terrorism requires international solidarity,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon declared after the vote.
Obama also addressed the Wednesday release of the beheading of Herve Gourdel, a French citizen, by terrorists in Algeria.
“President Hollande, we stand with you and the French people not only as you grieve this terrible loss, but as you show resolve against terrorists and in defense of liberty,” Obama said.
Just minutes before the vote on the resolution, the U.S. Treasury and State Department labeled several individuals “specially designated global terrorists” in an effort to disrupt the financial activities of foreign fighters, as well as their travel in and out of Syria.
The dozens of individuals the U.S. designated as global terrorists Wednesday have worked with a number of terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State, al Nusra Front and al Qaeda and its affiliates, to send foreign fighters to Syria and other countries.
Officially designating the individuals and groups as terrorists shuts down their access to U.S.-based property and prohibits anyone in the U.S. from engaging in any transactions with them “or to their benefit,” according to the State Department.
Earlier Wednesday, Obama delivered a lengthy, impassioned speech that touted America’s leadership in the world and its long history of stepping up and addressing world problems when no one else would.
He called on the coalition of world leaders committed to fighting the Islamic State to do more, provide more resources, implored other world leaders to join in to tackle a variety of world crises, from the Ebola outbreak to Russian aggression.
Acknowledging a “pervasive unease in our world,” Obama said world leaders gather together “at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope.”
The defining question at the root of many of the world’s problems is “whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the U.N.’s founding and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of violent extremism.”
He also exhorted Muslims around the world to step up and outspokenly reject the distortion of their religion by extremists like the Islamic State.
“It is time for the world — especially Muslim communities — to explicitly, forcefully and consistently reject the ideology of organizations like al Qaeda and [Islamic State],” he said.
“We can renew the international system that has enabled so much progress,” Obama told a gathering of world leaders Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “Or we can allow ourselves to be pulled back by an undertow of instability.”
