President Barack Obama’s stoic, scholarly demeanor during his appearance with French leader Francois Hollande has netted him a new nickname from Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank: “President O-bummer”. “We agree that Russian Federation could play a more constructive role if it shifts the focus of its strikes to defeating ISIL”.
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President Obama and French President François Hollande promised to increase cooperation and expand attacks against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Before heading to Moscow, Hollande met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Paris, who offered only vague support for “a coalition of greater and greater strength that is up to the task of… the destruction of Daesh”, using yet another name for IS.
“We agreed that our military and intelligence services will carry out more intensive contacts”.
The talks in Washington came as Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane at the Syrian border threatened to dramatically fan tensions in the volatile region.
Putin said Moscow was ready to unite with Paris against a “mutual enemy”, but he reaffirmed Moscow’s long-standing view that Assad and the Syrian government were also allies in the fight against terrorism.
“It is crucial in in that period to ignore any risk, any incident, and prevent any escalation”, Hollande stated at a news source conference following the Kremlin talks.
He also said that the shooting down by Turkey of a Russian jet was an act of betrayal by a country Russia considered to be its friend.
“If and when they do, it will make it easier for us to go after Islamic State”. Both Obama and Hollande, however, insisted that a political transition in Syria must lead to Assad’s departure.
Sergey Rogov, head of the USA and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said Hollande’s arrival in Moscow was “a serious event”.
Obama spoke to the National Security Council on Tuesday and learned that there was no credible threat against the USA from the Islamic State. The assessment was based on heat observed from the jet, the official said.
“And we must do it together”, Obama said Tuesday, at a joint press conference with Hollande.
The French leader has been seeking global support for his newly declared war on ISIS after the Paris attacks on Nov 13 that killed 130 people. His fingerprints, Molins said, were found in a auto connected with the attacks.
It has been more than a week since an worldwide arrest warrant was issued for key suspect Salah Abdeslam, who remains at large.
Across the border in Belgium, Brussels entered a fourth day of lockdown over fears of an “imminent” terror strike as the manhunt continued for the Belgian-born Abdeslam.
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The French and German leaders each laid a pink rose among the tributes of flowers and candles in Place de la Republique, the Paris square that has become a rallying point since the bloodshed.
