Europe poised to fight terrorism, solutions remain elusive

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (R) and US Secretary of State John Kerry (top) arrive for the chairman's debate during the 51st Munich Security Conference at the 'Bayerischer Hof' hotel in Munich February 8, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

MUNICH - Faced with increasing terror threats, European countries have yet to come up with a strategy to fight the war on terror, which they can not afford to lose.

In an address made at the the 51st Munich Security Conference, which concluded on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called for joint efforts to fight terrorism and said it must be confronted "with every fiber of our being."

Kerry's concern about terrorism has been shared by many participants of the conference. The Munich Security Report 2015 published by the organizing party of the conference featured a report about terrorism with the title "War on Terror: Are We Losing It?"

"The number of jihadist groups has mushroomed in recent years, as have the number of militants and attacks worldwide," said the report, in which the goal of the war on terror led by the United States has been described as "elusive".

Belgium and France have been put on high alert after the militant group Islamic State (IS) warned that it intended to launch terrorist attacks in the two countries. The group, which hardly attracted any attention at the security conference here a year ago, has been the focus of discussion when people talk about terrorism at the security conference this year.

Elisabeth Guigou, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly, said that some 1,400 people from France followed the ideology of IS, and 400 people even left France for Iraq.

"I think that we have to ask ourselves what are the reasons for this..." she said.

Andrey V. Kortunov, director general of Russian International Affairs Council, blamed the US for terrorism. According to him, military actions taken by the United States "destroy states", "unleash radical forces" and terrorism find easy prey in these countries.

When commenting about the US war on terror, he said: "Definitely they are not successful in suppressing the sources of terrorism and here more international cooperation is definitely needed."

Haider Al-Abadi, Prime Minister of Iraq warned at the security conference that Iraq was facing a "formidable new terror generation", which is threatening the region and the world.

Speaking about the fight against terrorism, Abadi said: "We must not and we will not lose the war."