France’s Fabius suggests working with Assad troops against Islamic State

Troops loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad could be used in any French ground campaign against Islamic State, France’s foreign minister said in controversial comments on Friday.

Diplomats were not immediately able to clarify Fabius’ comments.

The strikes came as French foreign minister Laurent Fabius declared that destroying the Islamic State headquarters and “neutralising and eradicating” the extremist group is the main objective of the worldwide military campaign. He spoke after a week of intense diplomacy capped by the French president’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The strikes against Daesh [ISIL] will be intensified and be the object of coordination”, Hollande said at a press conference with Putin, adding that the strikes would focus on the transportation of oil.

Nevertheless, Assad’s future remains a significant stumbling block to a coordinated Syria strategy between Russian Federation and the West. The Syrian president is a key Moscow ally and the Kremlin is keen to see him stay in power, while France, the U.S. and others have repeatedly said he must go.

For now, though, both sides share an immediate priority in the coming weeks in freeing Raqqa, the IS group’s Syrian stronghold, Fabius said.

In an interview with RTL radio, Fabius said that destroying IS is an objective that all countries agree upon.

“We have agreed… that we will exchange information about which territories are occupied by the healthy part of the opposition rather than terrorists, and will avoid targeting them with our airstrikes”, Putin said.

“If Fabius is serious about working with the Syrian army, and with forces on the ground fighting Daesh (IS), we welcome that”.