President Obama expressed heartfelt words of harmony to his French counterpart on Tuesday. However, Barack Obama made it quite apparent that it was in Europe’s hand to increase and improve performance against defeating the terrorist group which killed almost 130 people in Paris last week.
Obama and French President Francois Hollande were very determined on Tuesday in engaging the long game against the Islamic State in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks, even inviting help from two unlikely countries. Both the leaders seemed to be very much aligned and focused on taking measures to progress against the violent extremist group.
“We are here today to declare that the United States and France stand united in total solidarity to deliver justice to these terrorists and those who sent them and to defend our nations,” Mr. Obama said. The Islamic State, he added, is a threat to all nations. “It cannot be tolerated. It must be destroyed. And we must do it together.
President Obama urged Russia and NATO allies Tuesday to “discourage any escalation” after a Russian warplane was downed along Turkey’s border with Syria. Russian President Vladmir Putin denounced the incident as a “stab in the back,” and it could significantly hinder Western efforts to enlist Moscow in battling the Islamic State terrorist group and seeking a resolution to Syria’s nearly five-year civil war.
“Turkey, like every country, has the right to defend its territory and its airspace,” Obama said during a joint news conference in Washington with French President François Hollande. But Obama called on all sides to “take measures to discourage any escalation.”
President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande expressed a message of unification and peace at the White House on Tuesday not only against the terrorism of the Islamic State, but also against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach to Syria. “This barbaric terrorist group, ISIL or Daesh, and its murderous ideology, poses a serious threat to all of us. It cannot be tolerated, it must be destroyed, and we must do it together. This is the unity of purpose that brings us here today,” Obama said. ISIL and Daesh are synonyms for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
The dialogue exchanged between the two leaders discussed and focused on recent attacks in Paris and comprehensive strategies against the Islamic State. The administration is pressing for Hollande to call upon other European nations to do more in the wake of the attacks that killed 130 people in the French capital on Nov. 13, even as Russia remains an unpredictable player in the battle against the extremist fighters.
“It requires us working with [Russia] to make the kind of strategic shift that’s necessary, and that frankly I’ve talked to Putin about for five years now,” Obama said. Obama commended and saluted the French people’s resilient response to the attacks in the last week. He also acknowledged the decision not to cancel next week’s global climate summit in Paris “a powerful rebuke to the terrorists.” In his own remarks, Hollande said the conference would represent “no better symbol” to those wish to disrupt their way of life.
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