President Barack Obama says the USA stands in “total solidarity” with France in the wake of the deadly terror attacks there and pledged to do more to crush ISIS.
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A White House meeting today between President Obama and French President Francois Hollande has ended, as expected with another agreement to escalate the war against ISIS, with both agreeing that more airstrikes are needed, and both “ruling out” ground troops.
France has stepped up its airstrikes following the Paris attacks, relying in part on USA intelligence to hit targets in Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s stronghold in Syria.
French President Francois Hollande is headed to Moscow next week to talk more strategy in the fight against ISIS.
Obama said he and Hollande agreed that more needed to be done to combat Islamic State’s efforts.
Islamic State “poses a serious threat to all of us”, Obama said in his opening remarks with Hollande at his side.
But he maintained that Turkey had a right to defend its airspace and charged that Russian air activity near the Turkey-Syria border has contributed to the crisis.
“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 USA has been conducting 80% or so of the airstrikes in Iraq and Syria and France has very importantly been the only European country to engage in airstrikes in Syria with us”, said Derek Chollet of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The US and its coalition allies, however, have maintained that Russia’s actions target moderate opposition forces opposed to Russian ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“I reject identifying migration and terrorism”, Hollande said.
But Hollande’s mission quickly became entangled with the fallout from a Russian military plane downed by Turkey – an incident with echoes of the Cold War.
To consolidate that opening, Hollande’s trip to the United States is part of a frenzied week of worldwide diplomacy that also includes meetings with leaders of Russian Federation, Germany and Britain.
Obama acknowledged fear among Americans of a Paris-style attack in the United States.
As the two leaders spoke, a joint French and American raid struck an Islamic State command center in Iraq.
Obama also noted that France was still planning to admit 30,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years – three times the US amount.
Russian Federation is where President Hollande travels later this week.
“We will win and groups like ISIL will lose”, Obama said, using an acronym for Islamic State. “So we will tackle the poisonous ideology of Islamist extremism and refocus our aid budget to support fragile and broken states and regions, to prevent conflict and promote the golden thread of conditions that drive prosperity across the world: the rule of law, good governance and the growth of democracy”.
Almost five years of clashes between Assad’s government and rebel forces have created a vacuum that allowed the Islamic State to thrive. That program lets foreigners enter the USA without visas from 38 countries for short stays. So by calling out France for not getting permission from Assad, Russian Federation is making it clear it’s standing behind the Syrian president.
“I imagine Hollande hopes to convince the two to partner with France even if they can’t partner with each other”.
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Since IS militants killed 130 in France nine days ago, Obama’s strategy has come under repeated questioning.
