The incident underscored the complex military landscape in Syria.
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If Russia directs its energies towards Islamic State forces, “some of those conflicts or potentials for mistakes or escalation are less likely to occur”, Obama said.
“While Russia sees Syrian President Bashar Assad as a bulwark against terrorism, Obama sees the Syrian president as a recruiting tool for the group”.
Illustrating the leaders’ message on tighter cooperation, France said its warplanes had hit an Islamic State command center near its key western Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, in a strike led with the US Air Force.
Obama said that there is a great cooperation potential between his Government and Russian authorities against ISIL, hence he urged Russia to join the large coalition.
And there really was little difference in the two national leaders’ strategies, Milbank conceded in his column, but still, Hollande was upbeat “while Obama was discouraging and lawyerly” while Hollande evoked the spirit of ex-President George W. Bush “transplanted into the body of a short, pudgy, bespectacled French socialist with wrinkled suit-pants”.
After the Paris attacks, Mr Hollande was seeking to forge a broader and more co-ordinated coalition to focus on the war on Islamic State in Syria.
It follows a series of attacks on Paris on November the 13th in which 130 people were killed and more than 300 injured.
After coming under intense criticism for his response to the attacks, Obama turned up his rhetoric on ISIS Sunday, saying during a press conference in Malaysia that his efforts to stamp out the group would succeed.
“The importance of language was very clear at the White House on Tuesday, even in translation”, Milbank said. He also said that next to his bed in the White House is a picture of him kissing his wife Michelle in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.
Hollande welcomed the USA show of unity but suggested he is more interested in concrete actions than kind words.
Police in France said they were analyzing what is thought to be a suicide belt similar to those used in the Paris attacks, found without its detonator in a dustbin outside the capital. “But that’s not enough”.
“We chose to scale up our strikes both in Syria and Iraq, to broaden their scope and to strengthen intelligence sharing”, Hollande said. The assessment was based on heat observed from the jet, the official said. “He said “I’m going to be” – essentially – ‘going back to Europe and getting the Europeans to step up and do more.’ It’s not that we haven’t been doing a lot”.
The military planning comes amid a parallel diplomatic effort to ease Assad from office.
Obama suggested the solution hinges on Assad “choosing not to run” in the next elections.
On Morning Edition, NPR’s Scott Horsley explained that Hollande is trying to bridge a tough divide: the United States and Russian Federation have a fundamentally different view of the civil war in Syria.
The Paris attack has raised fears that terrorists might try to sneak into the West with refugees.
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France will also increase its support to rebel groups battling Islamic State on the ground in Syria, Hollande added. “Refugees who end up in the United States are the most vetted, scrutinized, thoroughly investigated individuals that ever arrive on American shores”, he said.
