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Bahrain to introduce AML committee

By Elizabeth Hearst

Bahrain is to set up a committee tasked with counter extremism, money laundering and terrorism.

In a royal decree announced on Sunday, the role of the committee will be to “streamline” the government’s anti-terrorism unit and “assess the dangers of extremist thought”, as reported by The National.

Official media reports detail that the interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa will lead the committee and will recommend individuals and entities to be blacklisted by the government. 

The statement declared that the committee will be tasked with “studying all issues related to extremism and counter-terrorism, funding of terrorism and money laundering”, and will report to the council of ministers. 

The council’s members include the religions affairs minister, governor of the central bank and head of intelligence and police. 

The Gulf nation with a population of 1.6 Million is a Middle Eastern banking centre, and is a member of the Terrorist Financing Target Centre (TFTC) with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the US. 

The group was established in 2017 in an effort to coordinate US and Gulf sanctions on terrorist organisations and members. Some of the groups major targets include ISIS and Al Qaeda. 

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