Obama and Hollande Televised Meeting

“Turkey is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally they are an integral part if we’re to be successful in the fight against ISIS and to change regimes, to take out Assad, it used to be our objective”, Bush told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day”.

As the Islamic State group expands its reach outside its bases in Syria and Iraq, Obama is facing increased pressure at home and overseas to ramp up USA efforts to destroy the militants.

“The United States is certainly pulling more than our own weight when it comes to the contribution behind this coalition”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

The U.S. 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”. CNN Politics mentions that during the press conference, Obama spoke in unusually personal and emotive terms, addressing the French people directly and also mentioning some memories from when he spent some time in their country.

Calling ISIS a “scourge” that “must be defeated”, Obama said the USA stood with France after the brutal massacre in Paris.

“It’s going to be hard and we should not be under any illusions”, Obama said.

Several have turned to Twitter to mock Obama, wondering whether the president actually knows that both word are synonyms referring to one terrorist group – Islamic State.

Hollande said he and Obama made a decision to scale up and broaden the scope of air strikes in Syria and Iraq and to strengthen intelligence sharing on Islamic State targets.

Shortly after the incident, Obama who was hosting visiting French President Francois Hollande, reiterated his support for the Turkish military’s decision.

Hollande said he would pass that message on to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meeting they will have this Thursday in Moscow.

“We need a joint response, an implacable joint response”, Hollande said. But he said Americans should feel confident in the work being done by national security and law enforcement officials.

The U.S. president charged that Russian air activity near the Turkey-Syria border has contributed to the crisis.

“We can not imagine the Syrians getting together, gathering around the leader who is responsible for most of the 300,000 dead in a few years”, Hollande said. In their telephone conversation, the presidents “focused on measures to expand bilateral and multilateral cooperation in countering global terrorism” following the barbaric terrorist attack that led to the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt and tragic developments in France.

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

“A political solution means to be able to create a unity government in Syria and clearly say that Assad cannot be the future of the country he has helped to butcher”, Hollande said on Monday.

The sit-down comes less than two weeks after the Islamic State group launched a series of deadly attacks in Paris.