Safeguard nuclear facilities from terrorists - Obama urges world leaders

US president Barack Obama has asked world leaders to ensure terrorist organizations do not get access to vulnerable nuclear facilities.

In his weekly televised address to Americans from the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, President Obama said leaders from around the world are working together to prevent terrorist groups like the Islamic State from laying their hands on an atomic weapon.

“I welcomed more than 50 leaders from around the world to make sure we’re working together to meet one of the greatest threats to global security: terrorists getting their hands on a weapon of mass destruction, like a nuclear weapon,” he said at the beginning of his address.

“Fortunately, because of our efforts so far, no terrorist group has yet succeeded in obtaining a nuclear device or producing a dirty bomb using radioactive materials. But we know that al Qaeda has tried. ISIL has already used chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. And if they ever got hold of a nuclear weapon or nuclear material, we have no doubt they’d use it. That’s why we’ve been leading a global effort to secure the world’s nuclear materials,” he added.

President Obama said the world leaders at the summit have also discussed how to counter the expansion of the Islamic State.

“Our summit was also another opportunity to make sure the world remains united and focused on destroying ISIL,” Obama said adding that “a majority of the nations who came here are part of our global coalition against ISIL. A number of our countries have been targeted by ISIL. Just about all our nations have seen citizens travel to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq.”

“During our summit, we focused on ways to step up our efforts to disrupt terrorist attacks. It requires even more cooperation to prevent the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and sharing even more information and intelligence.”

More than 50 leaders from across the world including Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari and Gabon’s Ali Bongo attended the nuclear summit.

Reuters