UNITED NATIONS, July 3. /TASS/. The United Nations anti-terror conference resulted in a compromise that left everyone chagrined by Washington’s stance, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for New Challenges and Threats Ilya Rogachev told TASS.

The US downgraded the level of its representation at last week’s conference explaining that NGOs were not allowed to take part. However, some delegates were against this saying that it was impossible to hold a trust-based dialogue between representatives of special services and law enforcement agencies leading counter-terrorism efforts in the presence of NGO members, the diplomat emphasized.

The conference was divided into two parts - the first day with closed-door sessions on the most challenging issues attended only by official delegations from the UN member-states and the second day was devoted to issues of major importance for civil society when NGOs had free access.

"So, a give-and-take option was hammered out and in my personal view, this is a real compromise because everyone was dissatisfied," Rogachev told TASS.

A significant group of states, including Russia, believed that this conference should be held only for official representatives, the diplomat noted. "The United States convened another group of states which believes that the entire conference needs to be open since it should not be a closed organization to representatives of civil society."

Ahead of the conference, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley criticized the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism (UNOCT) led by Russia’s Vladimir Voronkov, accusing the UN of an attempt at censorship. The organization "caved to political pressure from a handful of nefarious countries with no credibility on countering terrorism - like Russia, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela - and for which restricting access and blocking civil society participation is the norm," Ambassador Haley said.

Reuters reported citing an official source in the US administration that due to this move Washington decided to cut its financing for the UN counterterrorism office. When asked if this decision was related to the fact that a Russian led the office, the source said, "it matters."

On June 21, Voronkov told the UN News Service that only specific NGOs had been invited to take part in the event. After the US escapade, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric rejected the report that the NGOs had not been invited to the conference.