(CNSNews.com) — The United States and Turkey will co-chair a new global counterterrorism body to be launched on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week, despite Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s declared support for Hamas.

Eleven of the 30 founding members of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a bloc that says violent attacks by those under “occupation” does not constitute terrorism.

Israel, meanwhile, is not among the GCTF founding members.

The GCTF is a “signature initiative” in what the Obama administration is calling its “smart power approach to counterterrorism.” It was created at a G8 summit last May in Deauville, France, where a declaration by the gathered leaders said the forum would be “aimed at strengthening the international consensus in the fight against terrorism.”

Apart from the co-chairs, the group includes OIC members Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; European nations Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland as well as the European Union; and a cross of section of others — Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and South Africa.

In a speech in New York earlier this month unveiling the “smart power approach to counterterrorism,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the founding group as “traditional allies, emerging powers and Muslim-majority countries.”