US convenes dozens of countries on far-left political violence
Marco Rubio is hosting representatives from more than 65 countries for a counterterrorism meeting critics say could target lawful dissent.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting representatives from more than 65 countries for a meeting focused on what Washington describes as a renewed threat from far-left political violence. The gathering matters because civil liberties groups and counterterrorism specialists say the Trump administration’s approach could blur the line between security threats and lawful opposition.
The State Department has called the meeting the “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism.” It says the event is meant to improve coordination, information sharing and international law enforcement efforts against a threat it says has received too little attention in global counterterrorism work.
Reuters reported that critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, warned that far-left terrorism labels could be used against legal protest activity and political opponents rather than actual security threats.
What Washington is emphasizing
The Trump administration’s 2026 counterterrorism strategy names three main threats: “Islamist terrorism,” “narco-terrorism” and “violent left-wing extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists.” The strategy says the third category has long been overlooked.
The strategy also refers to the September 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk, saying it was carried out “by a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies.” It does not list right-wing extremism or white supremacist groups as a main threat, despite violence attributed to some such movements, including people involved in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2020, during an attempt to overturn the presidential election Donald Trump lost.
Thomas Renard, director of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague, told Al Jazeera that US counterterrorism policy has become politicised. He said far-right terrorism, which he described as having been treated for decades as the primary domestic threat, has disappeared from the US strategy.
Who is taking part
The State Department said on social media that more than 70 countries had been invited and that there had been “overwhelming interest.” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar is reported to be among those attending, along with representatives from multiple governments.
The ministerial follows smaller meetings held earlier in the year, including a session in The Hague with law enforcement officials. Renard told Al Jazeera that some European governments appear to be signaling unease by sending lower-ranking ministers, while avoiding an open break with Washington.
In November 2025, the United States designated four European groups as terrorist organizations: Germany’s Antifa Ost, Italy’s Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, Greece’s Armed Proletarian Justice and Greece’s Revolutionary Class Self-Defense.
How the term is being used
Governments generally use “far-left terrorism” to describe violence linked to left-wing ideologies such as Marxism, socialism or anarchism. Groups associated with those currents have included Cold War-era armed movements in Latin America, India’s Naxalite rebellion and European Marxist organizations such as West Germany’s Red Army Faction, which carried out assassinations, abductions and bombings in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Trump administration has also focused on Antifa. Al Jazeera described Antifa as a loose, decentralized movement of socialist-leaning individuals opposed to far-right extremism, white supremacy and authoritarianism. Prosecutors have accused some people described as Antifa members of violence in US cases; in June, eight were sentenced to prison, including Benjamin Hanil Song, who received 100 years after being convicted of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
The meeting does not focus on far-right political violence. The Cato Institute said in February that, excluding the Oklahoma City bombing and September 11 attacks, right-wing terrorists accounted for 45 percent of people killed in politically motivated terrorism on US soil from 1975 to 2025, while Islamists accounted for 32 percent and left-wing terrorists for 16 percent.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.