Marrakech – Abdellatif Hammouchi, Director General of Morocco’s National Security and Territorial Surveillance (DGSN-DGST), is conducting a working visit to Vienna from May 5 to 7. He is heading a senior security delegation representing both directorates, with the visit centering on the 23rd Regional Meeting of Intelligence and Security Chiefs.
The meeting, organized by the United Nations at the Vienna International Centre, brings together security and intelligence officials from the UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Libya, Oman, Tunisia, Sudan, Turkey, and Pakistan. Its focus is coordinating regional efforts against terrorist organizations.
Hammouchi presented Morocco’s integrated, multi-track counterterrorism model during the meeting. He also outlined the current map of terrorist threat extensions across global conflict zones. The DGSN-DGST chief discussed shared challenges tied to terrorist threats and collective approaches to addressing them with participating delegations.
The visit comes exactly one year after Hammouchi led a similar delegation to the same venue for the 22nd edition of the meeting in May 2025.
Discussions at the time focused on evolving threats from ISIS and al-Qaida following the collapse of their traditional strongholds and the rise of regional affiliates.
On the bilateral front, Hammouchi held separate talks with his Austrian counterpart Sylvia Mayer, Director General of the Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence Service (DSN). Mayer took office on January 1, 2026, becoming the first woman to head Austria’s domestic intelligence service. She succeeded Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, who stepped down in late 2025.
Austria wants to learn from Morocco’s counterterrorism experience
The Hammouchi-Mayer discussions covered strengthening the existing security partnership between Moroccan and Austrian services. They addressed migration, cross-border crime, human trafficking, counterterrorism, extremism, money laundering, arms trafficking, drug prevention, and intelligence sharing on internationally wanted individuals.
Mayer commended the DGST’s intelligence contributions that helped dismantle serious terrorist plots and arrest extremists on Austrian soil. She expressed interest in learning from Morocco’s counterterrorism and organized crime experience. The Austrian intelligence chief described Morocco as a safe and stable country.
Morocco’s counterterrorism record backs up that assessment. The country’s security services have dismantled over 200 terrorist cells since 2002, with the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) leading most operations.
The BCIJ foiled in February 2025 a cell calling itself “the Lions of the Caliphate in the Maghreb,” arresting 12 suspects across multiple cities and seizing ready-to-use explosive devices. BCIJ chief Habboub Cherkaoui warned at the time that ISIS in the Sahel aimed to expand operations into Morocco and recruit Moroccans to fight abroad.
In July 2025, the BCIJ broke up another four-member ISIS cell operating between Tetouan and Chefchaouen. Morocco remains the only country in North Africa not to have experienced a major terrorist attack for more than a decade.
A wide network of bilateral partnerships
Morocco’s security services have built a wide network of bilateral partnerships in recent years. In June 2025, Hammouchi signed a joint action plan with France’s National Police chief and received the Legion of Honor.
Just last month, he led a security delegation to Sweden on April 20-21, where he signed a memorandum of understanding with Sweden’s national police authority on intelligence sharing, joint training, and operational coordination. He held talks with Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer and National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh.
Days earlier, on April 9, Hammouchi received in Rabat Poland’s Secretary of State for security services coordination, Tomasz Siemoniak, for talks on migration, border security, and counterterrorism cooperation. The two sides agreed to arrange a visit by the head of Poland’s Internal Security Agency to establish an institutional framework for the bilateral security partnership.
Alongside the Austrian track, the Moroccan delegation held bilateral meetings with intelligence and security officials from Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq, and Oman. Discussions focused on deepening security and intelligence cooperation with those countries.
The DGSN-DGST communiqué concluded that the Vienna visit reaffirms Morocco’s standing and active role in international security cooperation. It also reflects the credibility Moroccan security services hold among their European and regional partners as a key contributor to global security and stability efforts.
