(Note: A complete summary of today's Security Council meeting will be available on Monday, 14 September.)
Solemnly marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the “cowardly terrorist act” on 11 September 2001, senior United Nations officials today called on the Security Council, Member States and the entire international community to uphold their responsibilities to remember the profound human cost of the international scourge and fight collectively to end it.
Following a standing moment of silence, Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) reiterated: “Our solidarity with the survivors and the families of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks, as well as our sympathies for all victims of terrorist attacks worldwide.”
She noted that, in 2001, the Council’s response was swift and united, adopting a series of obligations in resolution 1373 (2001) “as relevant today as they were 25 years ago” — calling for solidarity and international cooperation in preventing terrorism, bringing terrorists to justice and ensuring they cannot find safe haven. The Council has since passed more than twenty additional resolutions on counter-terrorism.
She further recalled that the Council created the Counter-Terrorism Committee to assist Member States to achieve the full implementation of resolution 1373 (2001) and its successors — and established CTED to assist it, providing neutral, independent and expert assessments of States’ counter-terrorism measures.
“And yet, much remains to be done,” she stressed.
Terrorist groups decentralize operations and diversify financing streams, while exploiting fragile governance, competition over resources and local grievances to expand their reach. Further, she emphasized they are using maritime routes to facilitate the movement of individuals, weapons and illicit goods. CTED has identified a growing role of decentralized cells, loosely connected networks and lone actors whose pathways to violence are more difficult to disrupt.
Further citing the use of new technologies, she called for particular attention to the recruitment and exploitation of children and youth. Meanwhile, she warned, financing networks are becoming more difficult to detect. Many groups continue to generate revenue through criminal activity, including extortion, kidnapping for ransom, trafficking and the exploitation of natural resources.
On this day, she stressed, the Council and Member States owe victims “our continued commitment to prevention and preparedness, and to international cooperation and solidarity in the fight against terrorism”. CTED remains committed to deliver on its mandate “and advance our common objective of a world free from terrorism”, she affirmed.
No Complacency Allowed
The unimaginable horror of the 11 September 2001 attacks “terrorized the whole human family”, recalled Eihab Omaish, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT). It drastically changed the course of history, “making the world less safe for all people”, he said. While that attack exposed the profound danger posed by a single terrorist organization operating across borders, today, the threat is “more diffuse, more decentralized and increasingly enabled by new technologies”, he pointed out.
Citing lessons from the past 25 years of counter-terrorism efforts, he stressed that security measures remain indispensable — but must be accompanied by proactive and sustained prevention efforts. Further, international cooperation and whole-of-society partnerships are essential in “building resilience against violent extremist narratives”.
Since September 2001, he noted that terrorist groups have lost leaders and territory, international cooperation has deepened and Member States have strengthened counter-terrorism legal frameworks and mechanisms. However, these significant achievements “are not grounds for complacency”, he warned. Calling for the continued leadership of the Council, he reaffirmed UNOCT’s commitment to “building a future free from terrorism”.
Terrorists Adept at AI
Citing the use of emerging technologies, Naureen Chowdhury Fink, Executive Director of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, emphasized they “are no longer a key tool for terrorists — they are the key tool”. Evolutions in AI “can only sharpen this trend”, she added, offering would-be attackers guidance and support, and in some cases, even emotional validation. She spotlighted the phenomenon of “agentic smurfing”, whereby AI-enabled financial transactions can occur at such a microlevel and with such frequency to render them virtually invisible to formal terrorist financing safeguards.
While resolution 2462 (2019) covered an expanse of issues to bolster international efforts to counter terrorist financing, she recalled that “we did not envision even these developments at that time”. Terrorists — “like many of us” — use multiple tools for diverse purposes, she noted, “managing their resources to survive decapitation strikes, evade identification and regroup as needed”.
However, she also highlighted the positive potential of such technologies, which can allow the more rapid identification of harmful content, develop targeted interventions or help circulate information about terrorist content without sharing the content itself. While “there is always more to be done,” she noted that “little policy direction has emerged from the Council at this critical juncture” — calling for multilateral approaches that reflect contemporary developments and include the “key counter-terrorism partner” of the private sector.
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