Obama and Hollande pledge solidarity against Islamic State

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed “total solidarity” with France in the fight against Islamic State, amid growing pressure from Paris to cooperate with Russian Federation in Syria.

Hollande thanked the president for his pledge for further cooperation, including continued support for French air strikes in Syria and quickly sharing threat information with allies.

Obama says the challenge has been Russia’s focus on propping up Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad rather than on wiping out the Islamic State Group.

Obama touted the U.S.-led 65-country coalition fighting the Islamic State, which has conducted 8,000 airstrikes.

The French President, Burns said, may have in mind a bigger role for the United States than Obama cares to take on.

The Paris attack has raised fears that terrorists might try to sneak into the West with refugees. Efforts to train and equip moderate rebel groups in Syria have struggled, and Obama has authorized the deployment of 50 special operations forces to jumpstart the program. “Russia is a coalition of two – Iran and Russian Federation supporting Assad”.

Hollande met earlier this week with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was set to appear before the House of Commons in London to advocate for Britain to extend its airstrikes from Iraq to Syria.

The United States, by working with Moscow militarily in Syria, could be seen as complicit in the killing and wounding of civilians, USA officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Both Presidents want the support of Russian Federation.

Hollande is trying to rally support this week for a more coordinated global campaign to destroy Islamic State.

“Given Russia’s military capabilities and their influence on Assad, their cooperation can help the fight against IS”, Mr. Obama said.

Obama, at a joint news conference with Hollande, said there was growing recognition in Europe after the November 13 attacks in Paris that more needs to be done to prevent the flow of foreign fighters.

“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”.

But during a meeting with his national security team, Obama was briefed that there is “no specific, credible threat to the homeland from ISIL”, the White House said.

Moscow has intensified its strikes in Syria after ISIL claimed it brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board.

“I think it is very important for us to right now make sure that both the Russians and the Turks are talking to each other and find out exactly what happened, and take measures to discourage any kind of escalation”, Obama told reporters.

Russian-Turkish energy trade is robust, as is commerce in consumer goods since the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on Moscow past year for its seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea territory.

“The Paris attacks generated a lot of emotion, but that’s not enough”.

French police said they were also analyzing what is thought to be a suicide belt similar to those used in the Paris attacks, found without its detonator in a dustbin outside the capital.