But even after three global summits in Turkey, the Philippines and Malaysia, the president had no new strategies for dealing with the so-called Islamic State, and few tangible new commitments from worldwide partners. These include Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
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Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama’s former secretary of state and now the leading Democratic contender to succeed him in the White House, reiterated her call for a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, saying: “It is time to begin a new phase … to smash the would-be caliphate”. He noted that 15 countries deployed personnel to train and support local forces in Iraq. “Italy is coordinating the multinational effort to train Iraqi police”, he said.
Obama, noted, “It will be helpful if Russian Federation directs its focus on ISIL, and I do think that as a outcome of ISIL claiming responsibility for bringing down their plane, there is an increasing awareness on the part of President Putin that ISIL poses a greater threat to them than anything else in the region”. He said he doesn’t comment on investigations happening in the United States, and certainly wouldn’t do so in a foreign country that he’s visiting, but he said he did raise with Najib and leaders elsewhere the importance of transparency and rooting out corruption, which are impediments to economic growth.
Most of the children the president met with are Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group.
“In addition to hunting down terrorists, in addition to effective intelligence, in addition to missile strikes and in addition to cutting off financing”, he said, “the most powerful tool we have to fight ISIL is to say that we’re not afraid”. “After all, that’s precisely what terrorists like ISIL want”, using an alternative acronym for Islamic State. Rather, it’s the fact that the public debate is so focused on the perceived “threat” of Syrian refugees that we aren’t addressing the issues that matter most for our long-term security – namely, problems of terrorist radicalization and recruitment, the Islamic State’s operational capacity, and community resilience. “We did see French military pilots carry out an additional round or two of airstrikes over Syria”, he said, adding that the White House welcomes the action.
“Refugees who end up in the United States are the most vetted, scrutinized, thoroughly investigated individuals that ever arrive on American shores”, Obama said. “And we’re going to pursue it with every aspect of American power and with all of the coalition partners that we’ve assembled”.
“Prejudice and discrimination helps ISIL and undermines our national security”, he told reporters before departing for Washington, pledging to “ultimately destroy” the terrorist group.
President Barack Obama says Russian Federation needs to make a strategic decision to go after the Islamic State group, not the moderate opposition forces trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
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He said Isis “can’t beat us on the battlefield so they try to terrorize us into being afraid”, and declared: “We will destroy this terrorist organization”. We will hunt down their leadership.
