Obama: We are all French now

Though France and the USA share the overriding strategic goal of destroying Islamic State, Washington has been slow to grasp the gravity of the situation in Europe, said Simond de Galbert, a French diplomat who served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

While announcing no specific new action, Hollande said he and Obama agreed to “scale up our strikes both in Syria and in Iraq to broaden our scope to strengthen our intelligence sharing regarding the targets”.

“Terrorism can strike anywhere, so we have to act”, French President Francois Hollande told reporters in Moscow.

Of course, even if Russia has refrained from using ground troops to date, its military calculations might change after Turkey’s destruction of a Russian fighter this morning, and two reported Russian military deaths during search-and-rescue operations.

Putin said Moscow was ready to unite with Paris against a “mutual enemy”, but he reaffirmed Moscow’s long-standing view that Assad and the Syrian government were also allies in the fight against terrorism.

Mr Obama said: “Russia’s strikes against the moderate opposition only bolster the Assad regime…”

The terror group is blamed for the November 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more at restaurants, a concert venue and outside a soccer stadium.

Appearing together in the White House East Room, Obama and Hollande each made a statement on the current state of the effort to counter the Islamic State before taking questions from the press.

“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.

Moscow proceeded from the fact that Russian aircraft worked at altitudes that “the criminal hand of terrorists can’t reach”, Putin underscored, adding that terrorist groups have no hardware capable of downing planes at altitudes higher than 3-4 kilometers.

But he also noted that, “Turkey, like every country, has the right to defend its territory and its airspace”. I understand that people worry that something similar could happen here. “To face Daesh (Islamic State), we must have a common, collective and implacable response”, Hollande said.

“There is a new mindset now”, Hollande said.

Following the meeting, Hollande and Obama vowed to intensify the military offensive against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Russian Federation has been Assad’s staunchest ally, and has come under criticism for targeting some rebel groups who are fighting against both IS and Assad in Syria’s multifaceted and complex civil war.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, whose country chairs the council this month, said a meeting could be held if requested and that the incident was not raised during a morning session.

Some Turkish officials have ‘direct financial interest in the oil trade with the terrorist group Islamic State, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev said as he detailed possible Russian retaliation to Turkeys downing of a Russian warplane in Syria on Tuesday.