Obama calls on Russia to focus on Islamic State group

He meets Putin in Moscow Thursday. Is Russian Federation more concerned with changing the geopolitical game than in resolving the Syrian conflict?

“The Islamic State has become more entrenched, in part due to the irresponsible policy of the U.S. Rather than cooperating on the fight against terrorism, America and its allies began fighting the legitimately elected president of Syria, Bashar Assad”, Medvedev’s Twitter post says. “Will the Russians accept to have jointly agreed targets?”

According to the ministry, Russian jets hit targets in Syria’s Aleppo, Damascus, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Raqqa, Homs, and Deir ez-Zor provinces.

In a breathless headline this week, a Russian news agency noted “Russian Defense Data Center Outperforms US Facility Threefold: Official”.

In the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, Russian and USA foreign ministers had stated that they would explore closer counterterrorism cooperation, but on the ground only incremental progress has been made. “There simply isn’t. We lost a lot of time and a lot of people”.

The focus on Islamic State has intensified since a Russian airliner was brought down by a bomb over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, with the loss of more than 200 lives.

On the same day, Russia’s Air and Space Force started to deliver the first pinpointed air strikes against the militants’ positions.

Russia, which is said to have obliterated more than 2,000 jihadis in its deadly bombing campaign in Syria, has by far the most extensive arsenal in the battle against ISIS. “My hope though is, now that we have some time to catch our breath and take a look at this carefully, that people understand that refugees who end up in the United States are the most vetted, scrutinized, thoroughly investigated individuals that ever arrived on American shores”.

The reinforced base in a wooded, mountainous area on the outskirts of Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic, contained a workshop for producing explosive devices and a stockpile of weapons and ammunition, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement.

No intelligence-sharing or coordination of military activity is likely, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential. The group says 381 IS fighters have been killed in the strikes, along with 547 rebels from other groups including Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. 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”. “That’s the risk, that’s what’s happening”.

As the rest of the world came to terms with the coordinated attacks on Paris the Kurdish leader Masrour Barzani put the problem into context when he claimed that if the west got its act together the Islamic State could be defeated in “months perhaps even weeks”.

His approval rating jumped to 33 per cent, the highest since January, from 25 per cent last month, according to BVA Opinion survey conducted on November 18 and 19.