Obama also said that the U.S.is united with France in the fight against ISIS, after a Paris terror attack that left at least 129 people dead.
Advertisement
“The values that we’re fighting against ISIL for is precisely that we don’t discriminate against people due to their faith, that we don’t kill people different than us”, Obama said.
Obama, who called the Paris assaults “a insane endeavor to threaten regular people” on the eve of his takeoff, confronts the topic of how the West ought to react now that it has turned out to be clear that Islamic State represents a risk a long ways past its activist fortresses in Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State took responsibility for placing a bomb on board the Metrojet flight from the Sinai Peninsula to St. Petersburg last month.
In his prepared remarks, Obama said, “We also have to remember that many of these refugees are the victims of terrorism themselves”. The summit attendees condemned the attacks on Paris as being heinous and said they were committed to reach their goals of defeating terrorism through the G20 goals.
He also rejected Republican criticism of the Obama administration’s plan to allow more Syrian refugees into the U.S.
Rather than casting about for a new strategy, Mr. Obama said the US would intensify its current campaign of airstrikes and arming and training moderate forces.
“The faster we can degrade and destroy (IS) the safer we will be”, he said.
While Mr. Obama did not single out any of his critics by name, a few Republican presidential candidates have called for sending USA forces into Syria. Much of it was taken up with answering his critics, particularly those who say he hasn’t been aggressive enough in combating the Islamic State.
French warplanes pounded positions held by Islamic State in Syria on Sunday in what Fabius described as self-defense, while Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was accelerating efforts to find partners in the fight on the ground.
The Islamic State’s increasing focus on wider targets has raised questions about whether Obama underestimated the group. 6 News will carry the news conference over the air and online.
“We are going to continue the strategy that has the best chance of working”, Obama told a news conference.
“I was surprised how determined the leaders were not to confuse refugees with terrorists”, one senior European Union official said, noting the statement had already been in the works after twin suicide bombings in October in host Turkey’s capital Ankara.
Turkey has come under pressure from Western allies to ramp up its fight against Islamic State and tighten control of its 900 km (560-mile) border with Syria, which the jihadists have used to bring in supplies and foreign fighters.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Cameron both emphasized the need for joint action against terrorism in the wake of Paris terror attack.
In the aftermath of the attacks in Paris on Friday night, Bush said that “we should focus our efforts as it relates to the refugees to the Christians that are being slaughtered”.
Advertisement
As Obama spoke in Turkey, French President Francois Hollande announced he would be meeting with the US president in the coming days to “join our forces” against the Islamic State. The plan appears to be based largely on a Russian proposal that envisions negotiations between Assad’s government and opposition groups starting by January 1.
