DUSHANBE, June 28, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has offered to punish countries supporting terrorist.  According to the Tajik press service, Rahmon remarked this on June 25 in Tehran while addressing the International Conference on Global Fight against Terrorism.

He stressed that Tajikistan held a firm position regarding the fight against terrorism and extremism.  He noted that according to reliable sources, there are an estimated 500 terrorist groups in the world and the number of them is increasing from year to year.   

In his statement, Tajik leader expressed regret that international community has not taken serious measures to develop and implement the global program to remove the main breeding grounds for transnational terrorism.  According to him, one of the key causes of terrorism is the wide gap in living conditions between advanced powers and poor countries.

In this connection, he noted that if advanced countries jointly with developing states did not develop and implement a joint program to combat poverty, starvation and unemployment the international community would not be able to cope with phenomena such as terrorism and extremism.   

Rahmon underlined the trans-national aspects of terrorism, and praised the world countries'' national and international determination to fight the inauspicious phenomenon of terrorism.  “Terrorism has trans-national aspects, therefore every country should work to root it out,” Emomali Rahmon stressed.

“Today, we are witnessing a national and international determination in the campaign against terrorism,” Rahmon added.  He further warned that terrorism has now targeted security, stability and growth of countries, and called on the international community to find proper ways to block financial resources of the terrorist groups, including drug-trafficking activities.

The International Conference on Global Fight against Terrorism ended up work on June 26 after issuing a final statement.

The Tehran international anti-terrorism conference started work on June 25 with senior officials from at least 60 countries and representatives of several international bodies, including the UN, in attendance.  The event, arranged under the slogan of "A World without Terrorism", was aimed at increasing international convergence and coordination in fighting terrorism.  The topics discussed at the two-day conference included various aspects of fighting terrorism, reasons behind the increasing trend of terrorist activities in the world, challenges and obstacles in the way of fighting terrorism, and enhancing appropriate counter-terrorism means and strategies on bilateral, regional and international levels.