“But we don’t know what we don’t know, and so it’s conceivable that there are some networks here that could be activated”. When societies get scared they can react in ways that can undermine the fabric of our societies. “It makes us weaker and more vulnerable and creates politics that divide us and hurt us over the long run”. Air strikes by a US-led coalition targeting Islamic State killed dozens of civilians in northern Syria last month, according to the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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In the USA, he said that the military, diplomatic corps, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement over the years, have “prevented many” attacks.
However, Mr Obama said military force would not be enough to defeat ISIS.
President Barack Obama on Thursday doubted Russia’s commitment to broker a lasting peace in Syria, but said the USA must nonetheless commit itself to halting the violence.
“We are going to keep working with partners, including Muslim countries and communities, especially online, to expose ISIL for what they are – murderers who kill innocent people, including Muslim families and children as they break the Ramadan fast and who set off bombs in Medina”, Obama said.
“On the ground in Syria and Iraq ISIL continues to lose territory, tragically however, we have also seen that ISIL still has the ability to direct and inspire attacks”. ISIL militants are under assault in Sirte, their seafront stronghold.
He also said it was “very hard to detect and prevent lone actors or small cells of terrorists”, hailing the the support extended to these efforts by “patriotic Muslim Americans”.
While Obama looked beyond the downfall of Isis’ self-declared caliphate on Thursday, predictions of its collapse remain premature.
Despite the massive effort, the jihadists still hold Mosul – Iraq’s second-largest city – and the Syrian city of Raqa. And with Manbij yet to fall to the Syrian armed groups backed by the U.S., an advance on the Isis capitol of Raqqa can not unfold.
United States defense secretary Ashton Carter has set the capture of both cities, the principal redoubts of Isis in Iraq and Syria, as a priority for the USA in 2016.
Asked at a press conference whether he was concerned about Mr. Trump receiving intelligence briefings, Mr. Obama said tradition and law dictate the national-security updates so both nominees will be prepared to take office. “Because in order for us to ultimately win this fight, we can not frame this as a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam, that plays exactly into the hands of ISIL and the perversions and perverse interpretations of Islam that they’re putting forward”, he said.
While Putin has publicly supported a political transition in Syria, Russia continues to provide military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, propping up his regime against US backed-rebels.
Obama cautioned against overreacting to such attacks and rejected efforts to demonise Muslims as a way to make the USA safer, in a criticism of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country.
If the renewed ceasefire does not stick, Obama said “Russia will have shown itself very clearly to be an irresponsible actor on the world stage that is supporting a murderous regime, and will have to answer to that on the worldwide stage”.
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“The reason that we had to give cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran”, Obama said.
