French President Francois Hollande and US President Barack Obama pledged their solidarity in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), declaring that they would step up strikes in Syria and Iraq, but neither committed to boots on the ground.
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“This barbaric terrorist group and its murderous ideology poses serious threats to all of us”. “It can not be tolerated”, he said.
MITCHELL: France is ramping up air-strikes against ISIS from a carrier in the Mediterranean.
ANDREA MITCHELL: President Obama, widely criticized for not condemning the Paris attacks strongly enough, tried to make up for it today, pledging to escalate the war against ISIS.
The United States and France “share the determination to fight terrorism anywhere”, Hollande said, through a translator.
Obama says a coalition of 65 countries is pushing back against the Islamic State, from places as far-flung as Australia and Southeast Asia. Obama also made it clear that other European nations need to intensify their focus on Islamic State. Given Russia’s military capabilities and the influence they have over Assad, them cooperating would be enormously helpful to a solution in Syria and allow us to focus attention on ISIL.
Hollande said unequivocally Tuesday that “Bashar Assad can not be the future of Syria”.
He claimed similar confrontations could be avoided if Russian Federation stopped attacking “moderate” Syrian rebels. The French military is effective, but limited in its scope and capabilities, he said. “Out of 10, the USA could have put one there to help”.
US fighter jets and gunships on Monday targeted 280 ISIS oil tankers in Syria, said to be a major source of the group’s financial lifeline. “I don’t think Obama would agree to it, but I don’t think Francois Hollande is going to be asking for that”.
Shortly after their meeting, a French official in Washington said French warplanes had struck an Islamic State command center west of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Hollande will also visit Russian Federation on Thursday and meet with his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Putin has ordered the Russian naval and air forces “to establish direct contact with the French and work with them as allies”, according to Agence-France Presse.
During a joint press conference with Hollande at the White House, Obama said that the United States and France “owe our freedom to each other”.
Both Obama and Hollande pointedly ignored the plane episode in their opening remarks at a White House news conference and, when pressed for a response, defended North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey.
“France will not intervene militarily on the ground”, Mr Hollande said.
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Washington and Paris have stepped up their fight against IS, with France launching its first strikes from a newly deployed aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and the United States calling for more global cooperation against the group.
