French war against Islamic State relies on USA cooperation

President Barack Obama says the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey points to an “ongoing problem” with Russia’s airstrikes in Syria.

Obama said Turkey “has the right to defend its territory and its airspace”, adding Russia’s targeting of moderate opposition groups does nothing to quell the spread of the IS.

“Russia right now is a coalition of two – Iran and Russian Federation – supporting Assad”, Obama said.

Turkish fighter jets shot down a warplane near the Syrian border after it violated Turkey’s airspace on Tuesday. 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.

PARIS France’s president heads to Moscow on Thursday to try to win concessions from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to fight Islamic State and press on with a political solution in Syria, but diplomats warn that major differences will make a breakthrough hard.

The USA president hoped that Russian Federation will undertake a “strategic shift” that would focus it fully on the fight against the jihadists, because having its cooperation “would be enormously helpful in bringing about a resolution of the civil war in Syria, and allow us all to refocus our attention on ISIL”.

Almost 15 years after the famous “We are all Americans” proclaimed in Paris in support of the United States bruised after September 11, 2001, Barack Obama launched in the language of Molière “Nous sommes tous Français” (We are all French), in solidarity towards the ally hit by terrorism.

Though France and the USA share the overriding strategic goal of destroying Islamic State, Washington has been slow to grasp the gravity of the situation in Europe, said Simond de Galbert, a French diplomat who served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ISIL is another acronym for ISIS. He called the attacks on Paris an attack on all open societies by a ruthless enemy. “We also think, as Francois said, that there may be new openness on the part of other coalition members to help resource and provide additional assistance, both to the coalition as a whole and to the local forces on the ground”, Obama said.

He and Mr Hollande spoke at a news conference as the French president visited Washington to coordinate a bolstered military campaign against the abhorrent terror group in the wake of the Paris attacks which killed 130 people.

“We are prepared to… plan strikes on Daesh (IS) positions together and create a joint staff with France, the USA, with all the countries who want to be in this coalition”, said Alexander Orlov.

Hollande said unequivocally Tuesday that “Bashar Assad can not be the future of Syria”.

After the press conference, Vice President Joe Biden told reporters gathered in the East Room that he believed “Putin is coming to the realization that Assad should transition out”.

But it was unclear whether Obama’s words of support Tuesday would satisfy France.