White House Officials to Press Allies on Counterterrorism Support in Meeting Friday

WASHINGTON — U.S. counterterrorism officials will meet with international partners on Friday to discuss how allies can increase efforts against terrorist threats, particularly those from Iran and in the Strait of Hormuz, a White House official said.

President Trump signed a new counterterrorism strategy on Tuesday. It targets Islamist terror groups, drug cartels and violent domestic political groups.

Seb Gorka, senior director for counterterrorism at the White House National Security Council, told reporters the U.S. expects more from allied countries that want to be seen as serious nations.

"We have a very simple metric: if you want to be measured as a serious nation, whether it is protecting tankers in the Strait of Hormuz or whether it is working against jihadi threats in the Sahel of Africa, we expect more from you. The idea that there is one hyper-power in the world, America, and it will protect all from every threat, is untenable. We reject the concept of global police officer," Gorka said.

"We will be discussing the new counterterrorism strategy and working together to say, 'OK, how can you step up to the plate in ways which complement what we wish to achieve?'"

Gorka described the United States' new 16-page strategy. It prioritizes drug cartels and Islamist terror groups, along with violent political groups whose ideologies are anti-American, radically pro-gender or anarchist, such as antifa.

He declined to detail classified steps but said the administration will identify threats, along with leaders and followers of violent or terrorist groups, and neutralize them through law enforcement, kinetic means or by cutting off financial resources.

The strategy seeks to incapacitate cartels until they can no longer bring drugs or trafficking victims into the U.S., Gorka said.

The administration will target the top five Islamist jihadi groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization, until they can no longer recruit terrorists, he added. Stragglers from ISIS in Syria and Iran have moved to African nations in search of ungoverned space, Gorka said.

The U.S. strategy also aims to stop left-wing extremist efforts before innocent Christians and conservatives are killed. It does not target specific labeled groups but anyone who believes violence for political purposes is justified, he said.

"We see a threat, we will respond to it, and we will crush it, whether it is the cartels, the jihadists, or violent left-wing extremists like antifa and like the transgender killers, the non-binary, the left-wing radicals who killed my friend Charlie Kirk," Gorka said.

"We will not permit politically motivated violence in the United States from either side of the aisle, but the sad truth is the left has far more politically motivated assassinations or attempted assassinations, to its credit in recent years, not the right."