This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
Tuesday 24 Nov 2015 - 21:36 Makkah mean time-12-2-1437
 Washington (IINA) - Pledging solidarity after the Paris attacks, President Barack Obama promised Tuesday to work with France and other allies to intensify the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying America will not be cowed by the scourge of terrorism, news agencies reported.
“We cannot succumb to fear,” Obama said, standing alongside French President Francois Hollande after they met at the White House to discuss the anti-ISIS mission. “Make no mistake, we will win, and groups like ISIL (ISIS) will lose.” Hollande said France would not put troops on the ground in Syria to fight ISIS, despite calling for stepped-up strikes and coordination against the group. “France will not intervene militarily on the ground,” Hollande said.
And on President Bashar al-Assad, Hollande would not provide a date for his transition from power but said it must be “as soon as possible.” Obama told Hollande in French: “We are all French.” Hollande’s trip to Washington was part of a diplomatic push to get the U.S. and other nations to bolster efforts to destroy the militant group that has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The French president planned to urge Obama to work with Russia to build a new coalition to fight the extremists.
But Hollande’s mission quickly became entangled with the fallout from a Russian military plane downed by Turkey - an incident with echoes of the Cold War. The shoot down underscored what some see as a need for better coordination among the sprawling cast of interests engaged on the battlefields and in the skies above Iraq and Syria. At the same time, conflicting accounts and rising tensions stood to make any closer contact between interests more difficult. Even before the incident between Turkey and Russia, Hollande faced a tough challenge in getting Obama to agree to a partnership with Moscow. The U.S. is deeply skeptical of President Vladimir Putin’s motivations, given his longstanding support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
U.S. forces were not involved in the air incident, according to an American military official, who was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. Nearly five years of clashes between Assad’s government and rebel forces have created a vacuum that has allowed the ISIS to thrive. The group appears to now be focusing on targets outside its base in Syria and Iraq, including attacks in Lebanon and Turkey and the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt. Given the rash of attacks, Obama is now facing increased pressure at home and abroad to ramp up U.S. efforts to destroy the militants. So far, Obama is resisting calls to significantly escalate his approach, and instead is focused on getting other countries to offer more counterintelligence, humanitarian and military assistance.
HA/IINA
|
No comments:
Post a Comment