Hollande and Obama meet over ISIS fight
President Obama and French President Francois Hollande announced Tuesday to increase airstrike attacks against ISIS and increase intelligence efforts after the terrorist attacks in Paris.
President Barack Obama sought Tuesday to both defend a longtime North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and keep the Syrian war from spiraling into an even deeper conflict after neighboring Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that it said violated its airspace.
“As Francois said, our humanitarian duty to help desperate refugees and our duty to security, those duties go hand in hand”, Obama said.
Obama and Hollande did not comment on the downing of the Russian plane as they appeared briefly before reporters Tuesday morning.
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.
“It is also a matter of urgency to close the border between Turkey and Syria and prevent terrorists from crossing the border and coming to Europe or other places and undertake such awful attacks”, he said.
France has stepped up its air strikes following the Paris attacks, relying in part on USA intelligence to hit targets in Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s stronghold in Syria.
Hollande’s meeting with Obama follows the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people at the national sports stadium, a concert venue and bars and restaurants in heart of the French capital.
“The United States is strongly committed to continuing to lead the shared efforts of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL”.
The official said the two men also agreed to renew efforts to support rebels on the ground, including through equipping and training them. Every time Assad attacks his own citizens, Obama says, it drives more people into the arms of ISIS.
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“We have to let the Vienna process play itself out”, Obama said, referring to an agreement among 17 nations that plans out a timeline for political transition in Syria. “But that’s not enough”.
Hollande, who spent just a few hours in Washington as he was making his way across the globe to meet with counterparts, said France now had a “relentless determination to fight terrorism everywhere and anywhere” and would “scale up our strikes” against the Islamic State in Syria and in Iraq. However, Hollande joined Obama in refusing to intervene militarily on the ground in Iraq and Syria, saying that is a role for local forces.
“The United States is underappreciating the structural impact that the crisis is having on Europe”, De Galbert, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and worldwide Studies, told DW.
“We can not succumb to fear”, Obama said after he discussed with Hollande on counter-IS efforts, “Make no mistake, we will win, and groups like ISIL will lose”. The two set clear limits on the future level of military engagement, and Obama stopped short of endorsing a French proposal for a unified coalition that would include Russian Federation, according to USA Today. News, the press conference has not revealed any specific new action or strategy on how to handle the ISIS.
Obama suggested the solution hinges on Assad “choosing not to run” in the next elections.