“Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace”, Obama said during a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Francois Hollande. “I had a conversation with President Putin in Turkey, and I indicated to him at the time that to the extent that they make that strategic shift – to try to bring all the parties together; try to execute a political transition that all parties would agree to; and refocus attention on going after [ISIS].”, the president further said.
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The U.S. president called Islamic State(IS) a “barbaric terrorist group”, adding that “its murderous ideology poses a serious threat to all of us”. “It can not be tolerated, it must be destroyed”.
After meeting with Hollande at the White House, Obama declared “total solidarity” with France, saying his planned trip next week to Paris for a climate change summit is a “powerful rebuke” to terrorism.
Obama and Hollande made the remarks in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks that reportedly killed at least 130 people and injured hundreds more.
The United States and France were already working with nine other nations against ISIL.
“Militarily, it’s about destroying Daesh no matter where they are”.
Mr. Hollande said he and Mr. Obama agreed “to scale up our strikes, both in Syria and Iraq” against the extremist group with “relentless determination”.
Nonetheless, Hollande said that he wished to “gather all countries” to carry out the fight.
He then is set to head to Moscow on Thursday to meet with Putin, a session that world leaders had hoped would pull the Russians more fully into the coalition fight against the Islamic State.
Both Obama and Hollande also urged Russian Federation and Turkey to not allow things to get out of hand.
Said Mr Hollande: “We have a resolution from the secuirty council, we must take action against Daesh”.
“Current information suggests that ISIL (another acronym for ISIS), Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions”, said a State Department travel advisory.
Hollande says the two countries will strengthen their intelligence-sharing regarding targets.
The Russian Sukhoi SU-24 was downed by Turkish F-16 fighter jets in line with Turkey’s standard rules of engagement, according to the Turkish military, which added that the Russian plane was repeatedly warned that it was violating Turkish airspace before it was sacked upon. The White House is deeply skeptical of Putin’s motivations, given his longstanding support for Assad, and has accused Putin of bombing rebels fighting the Syrian leader instead of targeting Islamic State.
“This is an incident between the Russian and the Turkish governments”, said Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S-led military campaign against the IS.
Since the Paris killings, France has moved its flagship Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean to increase its air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.
Russian Federation has launched almost two months of airstrikes to support its key ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.
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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.
