Obama just returned to Washington on Monday after a trip to Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines.
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“This barbaric terrorist group – ISIL, or Daesh – and its murderous ideology pose a serious threat to all of us”.
In advance of Mr Hollande’s meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, France sought to dismiss concerns that it might soften its stance on global sanctions against Russia over Ukraine in exchange for Russia’s co-operation in the fight against Islamic State.
Obama acknowledged fear among Americans of a Paris-style attack in the United States.
“We can not imagine the Syrians getting together, gathering around the leader who is responsible for some – the most of 300,000 dead in a few years”.
“If we can make him move on one of those things all the better”, the official said.
“On the right stood Barack Obama, President Oh-bummer”.
He also harshly criticized some tactics used, including one where the military dropped leaflets urging drivers of oil trucks to abandon their vehicles before airstrikes against them began. They also are hoping to take back territories under control by ISIS.
The two countries made a decision to intensify and broaden the scope of air strikes in Syria and Iraq and strengthen intelligence sharing on Islamic State targets. “That would be extremely damaging”, Hollande said.
Turkey’s attack on the plane comes as Putin is in the midst of a diplomatic campaign to cozy up to USA allies, especially France, in an apparent bid to create a so-called “grand coalition”. “Assad has been the problem so he can not be part of the solution”. Turkey, along with Gulf states and the US, is backing armed opponents to Assad, who is supported by Russian Federation and Iran. But Russia denies those accusations.
“Russia is the outlier”, Obama said.
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Obama said it was understandable that Americans might be nervous following the November 13 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more.
But he maintained that Turkey had a right to defend its airspace and charged that Russian air activity near the Turkey-Syria border has contributed to the crisis.
Of course without any mention of the Russian Defense Ministry…
The US military has backed up Turkey’s claim that Turkish pilots warned the Russian jet 10 times, but failed to get a response, before shooting it down. “We do not want to exclude anyone”, he said. “That would be extremely damaging”.
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Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said figures from non-governmental groups of the civilian death toll are “fairly accurate”.
