President Zeman calls for military strike against “nerve centre” of terrorism

Czech President Miloš Zeman addressed the UN General Assembly on the subject of terrorism on Wednesday, calling for a military strike against the “nerve center” of international terrorism. Mr. Zeman said the time had come to put to use article 47 of the UN Charter which enabled the creation of a joint military force to combat a global threat.

Miloš Zeman, photo: CTK

President Zeman, who has long called for concerted international action against terrorism, opened his speech by citing the names of cities hit by terrorists in the past year. In that short space of time, he said, international terrorism had spread –like cancer - from just 6 countries to 35. What more was the world waiting for –he asked.

“How long are we to wait? How long are we to convey our condolences only? How long are we only to express declarations of solidarity? I admit there are some limited actions against terrorism, but only very limited ones. And terrorism is spreading all the time. We have three main risks in this area. One is the risk that in the near future we shall have a new Islamic State in Afghanistan. In the event of a reduction of NATO forces in Afghanistan the victory of Taliban is highly probable. If so, the cruelty of Taliban will be practically the same as the cruelty of Al Qaida, Islamic State, Boko Haram, al-Nusra and so on, and so on.”

The second risk, the president said was the threat of a radicalization of the populations in the countries in question, which the president likened to the change of mood in Germany with the onset of National Socialism. And the third risk was what Mr. Zeman termed the “hesitation and lack of courage” on the part of the international community to take decisive action against this global threat.

“What we need is not massive territorial operations. We have bad experience in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya where we were able to destroy, but we were not able to construct. We must attack the sensitive point, the nerve center of international terrorism and not occupy the territory. We must attack the brain, not the body.”

Illustrative photo: Olga Haladová

President Zeman called for an activation of the “dormant” article 47 of the UN Charter which enables the creation of a joint military force against a global threat advocating the use of drones, helicopters, rangers and closer cooperation among secret services. He said he hoped the Security Council would now adopt a resolution to that effect.

“Without those measures, without coordinated military action based on the common will of the permanent members of the UN Security Council terrorism will continue to spread and we shall see new killings, new failed countries and new terrorist actions all over the world.”