Turkey has right to defend its airspace: Obama

The United States and its allies have cautiously welcomed Russian military support so long as it’s focused on the Islamic State. The incident underscored the complex military landscape in Syria.

The United States and France on Tuesday made a decision to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and support those fighting against it on the ground.

But he also said Russian Federation must pledge to target ISIS terrorists instead of moderate Syrian forces opposed to the government of Bashar al-Assad, a requirement Obama also insisted upon during Tuesday’s press conference.

He is to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Paris on Sunday. But Hollande’s mission quickly became entangled with the fallout from the downed Russian military plane.

Obama and Hollande joined UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in warning against any escalation.

Obama said: “Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its air space”, adding he expected to speak to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in coming days.

The White House signaled Monday that it already believes US contributions to the anti-ISIS effort are sufficient.

Hollande is visiting a number of countries to ramp up the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which took credit for the Paris bombings that killed 130 people earlier this month.

He claimed similar confrontations could be avoided if Russian Federation stopped attacking “moderate” Syrian rebels.

“We will win and groups like ISIL will lose”, Obama said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

But it was unclear whether Obama’s words of support Tuesday would satisfy France. The said meeting had a symbolic magnitude on the terrorist attacks on the French capital of Paris more than a week ago that has shocked the world and opened a new leaf on war on terror. “But that’s not enough”.

Mr Hollande, who has said that France is “at war” with Isis, elaborated, saying that the two countries had agreed to scale up their air strikes in Syria and Iraq, broaden their scope and enhance intelligence-sharing in an escalation of the fight against Isis.

Going into Obama’s meeting with Hollande, aides had signaled that the president was not considering a dramatic change of course.

French warplanes were ready on the runway when the word came from Washington that Obama had decided against action.

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

Obama and Hollande were both asked if they could set a deadline for Assad’s exit.

A USA official said that Russia’s apparent lack of regard for civilian casualties was one of the reasons the United States has been reluctant to partner with Moscow. Obama hopes he doesn’t run in the next election.