U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande have downplayed World War 3 fears sparked by Turkey.
Advertisement
France and the United States joined North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the United Nations in calling for a de-escalation of tensions yesterday after Turkey shot down a Russian war plane over its volatile border with Syria. In the call, Obama expressed US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation support for Turkey’s right to defend its sovereignty, and the leaders also agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure it doesn’t happen again, the White House said.
Putin dismissed the Turkish claim and held the USA responsible for failing to rein in its ally, saying that Russian Federation had informed the US about its military flights in advance in line with a recent agreement between Moscow and Washington aimed at preventing clashes between their aircraft. Speaking 11 days after militants killed 130 people in the French capital, Hollande urged an “implacable” joint response to crush the group in Syria and Iraq.
For Alex Vatanka, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, a think tank, Hollande sought firmer commitments from Obama in tackling IS and may have “wasted his time” taking the 6,000km trip.
“I will ask President Putin, as I’ve done before… that the strikes must be against Daesh (Islamic State), against terrorism”, Hollande said. What the Presidents won’t do is intervene with more military forces. “This is what we must do, all of us – we, Turkey and Russia“, Mr Hollande said. He spoke after a week of intense diplomacy capped by the French president’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
France is, so far, the only European nation who backed the United States in striking ISIS in Syria even before the attacks in Paris have occurred. He says Europe must work with Russian Federation to find solutions so that refugees can stay close to their country of origin.
Obama said Russian cooperation in the fight against Islamic State would be “enormously helpful”.
Moscow could avoid bombing “healthy” opposition groups.
“If Russia is prepared to change their strategy and prepared to focus their efforts on ISIL and to work with the worldwide community to do that, then we would welcome them as members of our coalition”, he said. But the delicate diplomacy around the conflict-in which both Moscow and Ankara are key players-was thrown brutally off course by the fighter jet downing, as Putin warned of “serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations”. Almost five years of clashes between Assad’s government and rebel forces have created a vacuum that has allowed the Islamic State to thrive.
While Obama has repeatedly heralded a coalition of more than 60 countries fighting the Islamic State, the U.S.is undertaking the bulk of the direct military action.
“We view the U.S.-led coalition with respect and stand ready to cooperate with it”, Putin said.
“Together with President Obama, today, we wanted on the occasion of that meeting first of all to share, share our determination, relentless determination, to fight terrorism everywhere and anywhere”, he said, adding there needs to be an implacable joint response.
Obama called for deescalation after the incident.
Obama is declaring “total solidarity” with France and pledging to bring justice to the perpetrators and the people who sent them.
“We agreed on a very important issue: To strike the terrorists only, Daesh and the jihadi groups only, and not to strike the forces and the groups that are fighting against the terrorists”, Hollande said after the meeting, referring to ISIS by its Arabic acronym.
The two Presidents plan to increase airstrikes against extremist targets.
Advertisement
Hollande said France was already coordinating with Russian ships in the eastern Mediterranean since the French Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier arrived in the region on the weekend.
