Obama to Host French President Francois Hollande at White House

“We do not succumb to fear”, said Obama, according to ABC News. “Knowing that they can count on the most powerful country in the world to have their back, as they determine what’s necessary to strengthen homeland security in their own country but also to take the fight to ISIL; I think that will be a source of significant comfort to the French people”, he said. Since IS militants killed 130 in France nine days ago, Obamas strategy has come under repeated questioning.

Facing accusations that he has allowed the Islamic State group to spread by refusing to send U.S. troops to Syria or step up the air campaign there, Obama made his most determined pledge yet to win the fight.

“They’re a bunch of killers with good social media”, Obama said, speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His administration tried to convince U.S. House members that the refugee screening process was sufficient, and Obama began entertaining a U.S. Senate proposal to deny visa waivers to recent visitors to Iraq and Syria. From Russia’s ill-fated war in Afghanistan in the 1980s to the similarly troubled times for US forces in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, large amounts of weapons were left behind or handed over to U.S.-trained forces. “He needs to go after the people who killed Russian citizens”, he said of Putin.

“[The Islamic State] does not have planes, so the attacks are on the ground”, he said last week during a summit of wealthy nations in Antalya, Turkey.

Obama added that there was an “increasing awareness” on the part of Russian Federation that the IS posed a greater threat to them than anything else in the region, and hinted at the U.S. working with the Kremlin to defeat the jihadist group.

From Washington, Hollande will travel to Moscow later in the week for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

French President Francois Hollande is due to meet with Obama at the White House on Tuesday to discuss ways to bolster the worldwide coalition fighting the Islamic State. Hollande then heads to Russian Federation for talks with Putin.

Separately, the USA military said it had destroyed 283 tanker trucks used by IS militants to transport oil from producing fields in eastern Syria to smuggling points, an acceleration of attacks aimed at crippling the group’s oil revenues. “While our country has a long history of welcoming refugees and has an important role to play in the heartbreaking Syrian-refugee crisis, our first and most important priority must be to ensure that any refugee who comes to the USA does not present a threat to the American people”, the senators said in the letter.

American politicians have been urging the U.S.to pause its Syrian refugee program until the administration can confirm that it’s airtight against possible terrorist infiltration. The president has since softened his tone.

Republican presidential candidates continued to rip into Obama for condemning their calls to halt the flow of Syrian refugees into the U.S.

“He’s not a mastermind”, Mr Obama said. Still, he said there’s a difference between vigilance and surrendering to fears “that lead us to abandon our values, to abandon how we live”.

“We are. I think if you look at the airstrikes statistics, we have a very broad air coalition both in Iraq and Syria”. “Be assured that we stand with you against this new evil that blasphemes against the name of Islam”.