LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that the Sept. 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks in the US has failed to divide those who believe in freedom and democracy, marking the 20th anniversary of that day.

"While the terrorists imposed their burden of grief and suffering, and while the threat persists today, we can now say with the perspective of 20 years that they failed to shake our belief in freedom and democracy," Johnson said in the video message.

"They failed to drive our nations apart, or cause us to abandon our values, or to live in permanent fear."

Nearly 3,000 people were killed, including more than 2,600 at the World Trade Center in New York, after hijackers seized control of airplanes and used them to attack the World Trade Center's twin towers and the Pentagon just outside Washington. Sixty-seven British nationals were among the dead.a

In a statement marking two decades since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the prime minister has said international commemoration demonstrates the “failure of terrorism”.

“We can now say, with the perspective of 20 years, that they failed to shake our belief in freedom and democracy. They failed to drive our nations apart or to cause us to abandon our values or live in permanent fear,” Johnson said.

The prime minister, who was born in New York City, said the threat of terrorism remained but people refused to live their lives in “permanent fear”.

“The fact that we are coming together today – in sorrow but also in faith and resolve – demonstrates the failure of terrorism and the strength of the bonds between us,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth has sent a message to the US President Joe Biden, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and remembered her visit to Ground Zero, the site of the attack on the World Trade Center.

Her message said: “As we mark the 20th anniversary of the terrible attacks on Sept. 11 2001, my thoughts and prayers — and those of my family and the entire nation — remain with the victims, survivors and families affected, as well as the first responders and rescue workers called to duty.

“My visit to the site of the World Trade Center in 2010 is held fast in my memory. It reminds me that as we honor those from many nations, faiths and backgrounds who lost their lives, we also pay tribute to the resilience and determination of the communities who joined together to rebuild.”

A total of 2,977 people were killed in the terror attack, including 67 Britons – “each of them a symbol of the eternal friendship between the United Kingdom and the United States,” Johnson said.

The date of Sept. 11, 2001, “became, in President Roosevelt’s words after Pearl Harbor, a ‘date which will live in infamy’”, Johnson added. — Agencies