“The most powerful tool we have to fight ISIL is to say that we’re not afraid, to not elevate them, to somehow buy into their fantasy that they’re doing something important”, Obama said, using an acronym for the terrorist organization.
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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius attended the G-20 in place of French PresidentFrancois Hollande, who canceled his trip in the wake of the attacks in Paris Friday. The US has said oil provides about half the group’s total income. And there are suspicions in Washington that Russian President Vladimir Putin will try to entice Europe to bargain away sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine in return for a more overt Kremlin role against ISIS.
In its daily summary of airstrikes, the U.S.-led military coalition said Monday that 283 vehicles had been struck in eastern Syria on November 21 but did not elaborate.
From Washington, Hollande will travel to Moscow for meetings with Putin.
Beyond their discussions on military cooperation, Obama and Hollande are expected to discuss diplomatic efforts to achieve a political transition in Syria.
USA aircraft dropped warning leaflets and made strafing runs in the area to persuade the civilian drivers of the tanker trucks to abandon their vehicles before the bombing began, Warren said, adding that the US believes no civilians were injured or killed.
Almost five years of fighting between Assad and Syrian rebels has created a vacuum that allowed IS to thrive in both Syria and Iraq.
He expressed concern that legislation being considered in the U.S. House, though not as radical as that voiced by a few Republican presidential candidates in the past week, could “gum up the works so much” that it would effectively end the refugee program for “people who desperately need it”, particularly children.
The president has since softened his tone.
The USA campaign has centered largely on launching airstrikes, while training and assisting security forces on the ground in Iraq. “The president would like to see us go faster”.
In contrast Obama, in a much-criticized press conference in Turkey last Monday, described the Paris attacks as “heinous” and “sickening” but argued that the USA strategy against ISIS was working.
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170-a-13-(Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, at news conference)-“has their back”-White House press secretary Josh Earnest says President Obama is looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting with President Francois Hollande so he can show America’s solidarity with the French after the Paris terror attacks”. He said the us had survived mass casualties before and pointed out that New York’s Times Square was again filled with people – “rightly so”. “We’ve made a few bad decisions subsequent to that attack in part based on fear, and that’s why we have to be cautious”.
