Sharm el-Sheikh, Beirut, Paris, Bamako,
\nSan Bernardino and Ankara are cities on four different continents targeted by
\nJihadists in less than six months. Hundreds of people have been killed in these
\nattacks. Brussels, the European Union’s administrative capital and the host of
\nthe NATO headquarters was too the site of a bloodshed on Tuesday. In November,
\nwhen for fear of such attacks the Belgian authorities had raised the terrorist
\nalert to the maximum level and the army started patrolling the streets on
\narmored vehicles, there were voices, dubbed as alarmist at the time, who
\nwarned that it was only a matter of time until the city would be attacked. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It
\nwas also in November that the European media accused Belgian authorities of
\nhaving allowed the setting up of a genuine Jihadist neighborhood in Brussels,
\nthe infamous Molenbeek. Disturbed people, grounding their criminal actions on
\nreligious reasons, were already at the heart of Europe. Pundits had warned about
\nthe threat of a so-called Islamic
\nspring in Western Europe, which they saw as more vulnerable than ever.
\nUnfortunately, Tuesday’s carnage confirmed their fears. The civilized world has
\nonce again been gripped by suffering, disbelieve and anger. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Belgium’s ally
\nwithin NATO, its EU partner and colleague in the Francophone movement, Romania
\nshares this country’s grief. Over 30,000 Romanian citizens are currently living
\nin Brussels and the surrounding areas and at least four of them were injured in
\nthe blasts at the airport and metro station. Against this background, Romanian
\nPresident Klaus Iohannis, currently on an official visit to Turkey, has said
\nthat terrorism can be fought against by making efforts for peace and
\nsolidarity:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Klaus Iohannis: These
\nattacks must be countered with our strong will for peace, collaboration and
\nsolidarity in working out the big problems facing the region in which both
\nRomanian and Turkish people live.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A crisis
\nmanagement team of the Romanian Foreign Ministry is constantly in touch with
\nBelgian authorities and a mobile consular team has traveled to Brussels to join
\nthe embassy staff. Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu has announced that Romania
\nis ready to assist Belgium. Comanescu has insisted on the need for solidarity
\nwithin the EU. In Bucharest, additional security staff have been deployed in
\nairports and at the headquarters of diplomatic missions, although the terrorist
\nalert level has not been raised. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian Intelligence Service chief,
\nEduard Helvig, has said in a news conference that there is no intelligence
\nleading to a direct connection between the attacks in Brussels and threats to
\nRomania’s national security. Hellvig has warned, however, that the events in
\nBelgium do affect Romanians, as terrorism has become a global threat. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\npresident of the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee Georgian Pop has said: Unfortunately we are in a very
\ncomplicated situation. What has happened in
\nBrussels, but also in Paris, Ankara and
\nIstanbul, have not been isolated events. They were carefully planned,
\ncascade-based attacks. At present, in Romania, the Intelligence Service and the
\nterrorist attacks prevention system have managed to maintain the caution-blue
\nalarm level, which means a relatively low threat level. Keeping it that way
\ninvolves a great deal of work.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, a former European Commissioner for Agriculture, who lived in Brussels many years, has
\nvoiced his compassion for the victims of the attacks and conveyed a message of
\nsupport for the Belgian authorities. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanian authorities have firmly condemned Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":67936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30087,38418,29000,28972],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-67935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-brussels-attacks","tag-intelligence-chief-eduard-helvig","tag-president-klaus-iohannis","tag-romanian-intelligence-service"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n