How Will Downing of Russian Plane Impact Campaign Against ISIS?

U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande pressed Russia on Tuesday to focus its attacks in Syria on Islamic State militants after Turkey heightened tensions in the region by downing a Russian plane.

“While the threat of terrorism is a troubling reality of our age, we are both equipped to prevent attacks and we are resilient in the face of those who would try to do us harm”, Obama said.

Obama cautioned that information about the incident was still emerging and he discouraged escalation.

“The United States is certainly pulling more than our own weight”, Earnest said in a statement. Both leaders said during a White House news conference that same day that the worldwide coalition had to devote more resources against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. 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 jump start the program.

French President Hollande came to Washington before going onto Moscow to push for a united response against ISIS for the attacks in Paris, but as our chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell explains, his mission did not go as planned. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he would seek parliamentary approval this week for Britain to begin air strikes as well.

President Obama welcomed President François Hollande of France to the White House on Tuesday to map out the future of the worldwide campaign against the Islamic State as pressure rose for a more aggressive approach. However, he said France will not intervene militarily on the ground. “Diplomatically, we are working on a credible political transition in Syria within the framework of the Vienna process”, he said. The diplomat wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the subject and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“He meant to tell me that the United States stood by France, that the help that could be provided to France would have no limit”, Hollande said Tuesday during a joint news conference.

The call for Russia’s cooperation comes after Turkish officials shot down a Russian warplane traveling in its airspace this week.

Turkish Ambassador to the United Nations Halit Cevik said in a letter to the Security Council that two Russian planes had flown a little more than a mile into Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.

Turkish authorities claimed the pilots ignored 10 warnings in five minutes before it was blasted out of the sky.

Hollande will meet with Putin Thursday in Russian Federation, part of his diplomatic effort to build support for an intensified campaign against IS.

“The first thing President Obama should be doing with President Hollande is remembering the concept of the West and showing and meaning a willingness to put intelligence, military and economic tools in defense of those values”.

“Russia right now is a coalition of two – Iran and Russian Federation supporting Assad”, Obama said, comparing the partnership to the U.S.-led 65 member coalition combating IS.