US President Barack Obama will stand in solidarity with his French counterpart Francois Hollande at the White House, less than two weeks after the Islamic State group launched a series of deadly attacks in Paris.
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US President Barack Obama does not trust French President Francois Hollande despite what appears in the media as a cordial relationship, French journalist Michel Colomes wrote in Le Point. “Make no mistake, we will win, and groups like ISIL will lose”.
Mr. Hollande’s stop in Washington is part of a whirlwind global tour to corral a broader coalition of key nations to ramp up efforts to combat Islamic State.
Obama also said there was an “increasing awareness” by Russian President Vladimir Putin that IS is Moscow’s gravest threat in the Middle East. IS claimed responsibility for downing a Russian passenger jet in Egypt last month with 224 on board. Some Republican leaders who disdain what they see as Obama’s naive approach to the Islamist extremist threat have declared France the leader, in America’s absence, of the war to destroy IS. The incident underscored the complex military landscape in Syria, where a sprawling cast of countries and rebel groups are engaged on the battlefield and in the skies overhead, sometimes with minimal coordination.
European Union officials are increasingly concerned and telling USA officials that the Syrian crisis – with its refugee flows and spawning of terror groups – is destabilizing Europe..
Obama cautioned that information about the incident was still emerging.
Obama and Hollande are scheduled to talk to the press after their meeting.
Hollande is expected to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and Putin on Thursday. “We do not want to exclude anyone”, he said. “Russian Federation right now is a coalition of two – Iran and Russian Federation supporting Assad”.
Almost five years of clashes between Assad’s government and rebel forces have created a vacuum that has allowed Islamic State to thrive.
“How we report on this has to maintain perspective and not empower in any way these terrorist organizations or elevate them in ways that make it easier for them to recruit or make them stronger”, he said.
A video grab made on November 18, 2015, shows an image taken from a footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry’s official website on November 18, 2015, purporting to show an explosion after airstrikes carried out by Russian air force on what Russia says was an Islamic State oil-processing facility at an unidentified location in Syria.
Cameron announced on Monday that he will ask the British parliament for approval to begin bombing ISIS targets in Syria.
While Obama has repeatedly heralded a coalition of more than 60 countries fighting the Islamic State, the U.S.is undertaking the bulk of the direct military action. But his office acknowledges that “co-ordination” sounds like a far more realistic goal.
“There have been times in our history, in moments of fear, when we have failed to uphold our highest ideals, and it has been to our lasting regret”, Obama said. And he said that near his bed in the White House residence he keeps a photo of Michelle and him kissing in the Luxembourg Gardens.
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“So when tragedy struck that evening, our hearts broke too”.
