Pledging solidarity after the Paris attacks, US President Barack Obama promised Tuesday to work with France and other allies to intensify the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State. To this point, Obama said, Russia is an “outlier” in the fight.
We cannot and we will not succumb to fear..Make no mistake, we will win, and groups like ISIL will lose.Barack Obama, after he met French President Francois Hollande at the White House to discuss the anti-ISIS mission.
Hollande’s trip to Washington was part of a diplomatic push to get the U.S. and other nations to bolster efforts to destroy ISIS, that claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
Hollande emerged from his meeting with Obama saying that France and the United States had agreed to step up a “joint response,” including new efforts to target terrorists’ financial networks, take back IS-controlled territory, scale up efforts in Syria and Iraq and increase intelligence sharing.
U.S., France to Step Up Strikes in Syria, Iraq
France has stepped up its airstrikes following the Paris attacks, relying in part on U.S. intelligence to hit targets in Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s stronghold in Syria. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he would seek parliamentary approval this week for Britain to begin airstrikes as well.
Given the rash of attacks, Obama is now facing increased pressure at home and abroad to ramp up U.S. efforts to destroy the militants. So far, Obama is resisting calls to significantly escalate his approach, and instead is focused on getting other countries to offer more counterintelligence and military assistance.
The U.S. campaign has centered largely on airstrikes as well as the training and assisting of security forces on the ground in Iraq. Efforts to train and equip moderate rebel groups in Syria have struggled, and Obama has authorized the deployment of 50 special operations forces to the country to jumpstart the program.
On The Shootdown of a Russian Plane by Turkey
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The French president had planned to urge Obama to work with Russia to build a new coalition to fight the extremists. But Hollande’s mission quickly became entangled with the fallout from a Russian military plane downed by Turkey — an incident with echoes of the Cold War. The shootdown underscored what some see as a need for better coordination among the sprawling cast of interests engaged on the battlefields and in the skies above Iraq and Syria.
About the shoot-down of a Russian plane by Turkey, Obama said that Turkey had a “right to defend its territory and its airspace.”
U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande have urged Russia and Turkey to avoid escalation over Turkey’s downing of a Russian plane along the Turkish-Syrian border.
The president said the shootdown underscored an “ongoing problem” with Russia’s military operations in Syria, where the Russians have been targeting groups near the Turkish border.
Even before the incident between Turkey and Russia, Hollande faced a tough challenge in getting Obama to agree to a partnership with Moscow. The U.S. is deeply skeptical of President Vladimir Putin’s motivations, given his longstanding support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
On Working Together With Russia To Fight ISIS
That skepticism was clear Tuesday as both Obama and Hollande told reporters they would welcome Russia’s involvement in the fight — if Moscow were to concentrate its military action on IS.
Hollande said he would bring that message to Moscow, where he is to meet with Putin later this week. “We do not want to exclude anyone,” he said.
Obama said, “We’ve got a coalition of 65 countries. Russia right now is a coalition of two — Iran and Russia supporting Assad.”
Nearly five years of clashes between Assad’s government and rebel forces have created a vacuum that has allowed the Islamic State to thrive.
Putin says his country is targeting the Islamic State militants, the U.S. contends Moscow is going after rebels fighting Assad, a Kremlin ally whom the U.S. wants pushed out.
Last week, Hollande called for the U.S. and Russia to set aside their policy divisions over Syria and “fight this terrorist army in a broad, single coalition.” But his office acknowledges that “coordination” sounds like a far more realistic goal.
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