“Every day we have threat streams coming through the intelligence transit… and the concerns about potential ISIL [ISIS] attacks in the West have been there for over a year now, and they come through periodically”, the president said at the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey.
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“What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing a few notion of American leadership or America winning, or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people, and to protect people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like France”, Obama said.
“What I do not do is to take actions, either because it is going to work politically or it is going to somehow, in the abstract, make America look tough, or make me look tough”, he said.
129 people have died in the aftermath of a string of terror attacks in Paris, while 99 out of 352 injured are in a critical condition, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins stated during a news briefing following a string of terror attacks in France’s capital. Obama huddled with leaders from France, Britain, Germany, and Italy.
“The overwhelming majority of victims of terrorism… are Muslims”, Obama added later. Instead, they foreshadowed an expansion of steps the U.S.is already taking, namely airstrikes and train-and-equip missions for rebels inside Syria.
“There will be an intensification of the strategy that we’ve put forward”, he said.
Obama dismissed the suggestion that he failed to comprehend the Islamic State’s strength, but said there were challenges in defeating a group whose fighters have a “willingness to die”.
Obama also hailed “modest progress” in diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Syria conflict, after high-level talks between world powers including Russian Federation in Vienna.
Obama last week countered facts that ISIS was getting stronger by saying, “What is true is that from the start our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them”.
Obama will fly from Turkey to the Philippines later Monday to speak with Asian leaders.
Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the need to cut off the militants’ ability to generate revenue through oil smuggling.
The Islamic State’s increasing focus on targets outside the military has raised questions about whether Obama underestimated the group. Trump proclaimed that he would “bomb the s**t” out of ISIS, and Bush suggested that any USA assistance to refugees fleeing the Middle East should be primarily focused on Christians, another idea that rankled Obama.
Obama met with Cameron, Merkel, Italian Prime Minster Matteo Renzi and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday. The Paris attacks have eerie similarity to the November 26, 2008 Mumbai strike, has galvanised the world with calls for united front to combat terrorism.
“The latest tragic events in Paris show that we have to unite our efforts in fighting this evil, something we should have done long time ago”, Putin said.
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In addition to the attacks in the French capital on Friday, ISIS has been blamed for two bombings in Turkey this year that killed around 130 people.
