The USA and Russian Federation have been at odds over Moscow’s support of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
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At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said the USA may step up efforts supporting strategies believed to be working – airstrikes and train-and-assist missions in Syria and Iraq.
Vice-President Joe Biden sought those resources from allies at a meeting with ambassadors from 59 of the 65 countries in the coalition. “When you look at the groups who are on the ground their, the most effective fighting groups, they are predominantly ISIS, al-Qaida, al-Nusra and these other Islamic extremist groups – they make up the vast majority of these so-called Syrian rebels”, she said.
Given the rash of attacks, Obama is now facing increased pressure at home and overseas to ramp up US efforts to destroy the militants. By contrast, the United States, Turkey and the Saudis have called for Assad’s removal from power.
“They’ve focused on another goal”, Earnest told reporters, referring to the Russians. The US and France support a transition that would lead to the departure of Assad, who has overseen a civil war in his country that created a vacuum for the Islamic State group to thrive.
Despite criticism of Obama’s strategy for underestimating ISIS – he once called it a “JV” team – it is still Washington that is calling the shots for the existing coalition, a coalition the US put in place.
One clear impediment to the formation of a wider anti-ISIS coalition is the often-stated argument that the key players, including the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Gulf States all have differing priorities in Syria. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Russian has previously dropped bombs emblazoned with the words “For our people” and “For Paris” after Moscow vowed vengeance following the bombing of a plane over Sinai.
Presidential candidates from Democrat Hillary Clinton to Republican John Kasich have weighed in on how best to stop Islamic State, whose militants killed 130 people in Paris this month.
“These narratives don’t necessarily mesh, but they’re both there and the Russians are cheerfully pushing both forward”, Oliker said. US forces were not involved in the incident, according to an American defense official, who was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity.
But as the world tries to recover from the carnage of last Friday’s attacks, many are wondering what the administration intends to do to degrade the terror group, including the possibility of sending additional US troops into the region to battle ISIS forces.
On Thursday, Hollande will meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow. We eliminate. We will resume the lands where they are, we will delete their funding, we traquerons their leaders, we will dismantle their networks, supply lines, and we will eliminate them, ” said Barack Obama.
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“We’ve assembled a taskforce starting Saturday to consider legislation as quickly as possible, ” said Ryan.
