MOSCOW, September 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The terrorism threat has acquired a new dimension due to the activities of foreign terrorist fighters, Russian presidential special envoy for international cooperation in fight against terrorism and transnational organised crime, Alexander Zmeyevsky, said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum in New York.

"I repeat that this is the most serious problem. For example, today terrorists from the ‘Arab Belt’ states and recruits from European countries, Russia, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, North America, Japan, China and Australia are fighting with the Islamic States and Al Nusra,” Zmeyevsky said.

Zmeyevsky said Russia is studying possibilities to intensify its participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

“Apart from Syria and Iraq, the foreign terrorist fighters phenomenon exists in Mali, Libya and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region,” he added.

“The latest events prove an alarm tendency towards raising terrorism threats,” he said.

“Terrorism is growing strong ideologically and financially, due to the flow of new recruits. Radicalization among the public provoked and systematically fuelled by external forces help terrorists accumulate their potential. A real global threat of terrorist ‘caliphate’, which will involve destructive elements of all colors, is being formed,” Zmeyevsky said.

“These forces practically play an independent role in regional conflicts, erode opposition movements on the inside and get benefit from confessional and ethnic contradictions,” he said.

“Their power increases due to ‘mutually advantageous cooperation’ with transnational organized crime. Illegal oil trade has become a significant revenue source for several terrorist organizations,” the diplomat added.

“The above-mentioned events are now developing in the Middle East and North Africa in full scope where groups ideologically linked to Al Qaeda, including Jabhar al Nusra and the Islamic State (IS), operate. The burst of their activity comes amid weakened or destroyed state structures, including not without the participation from outside, with support from different external sponsors,” Zmeyevsky said.