France and US urge Russia to change tactics in fight against ISIL

[webfact]

France and US urge Russia to change tactics in fight against ISIL



WASHINGTON: -- Barack Obama and Francois Hollande have repeated their call for a renewed international effort to degrade and destroy Islamic State militants.

The appeal came after talks between the US and French presidents at the White House in the wake of the Paris attacks.

Obama said Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet proved the need for greater coordination over Syria.

“President Hollande and I agreed that Russia’s strikes against the moderate opposition only bolster the (Bashar) Assad regime, whose brutality has helped to fuel the rise of ISIL. We agree that Russia could play a more constructive role if it were to shift the focus of its strike to defeating ISIL.”

Sentiments shared by Hollande who said: “The priority is to take back key locations in the hands of Daesh in Syria. It is also a matter of urgency to close the border between Turkey and Syria to prevent terrorists from crossing the border and coming to Europe or other places to undertake such terrible attacks.”

Hollande, who has ruled out a ground offensive, will visit Moscow on Thursday to continue his drive for support.

Since the Paris killings, France has moved its flagship Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier into the eastern Mediterranean to increase its air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-11-25

[webfact]

Obama and Hollande call for greater cooperation against ISIL



WASHINGTON: -- The presidents of France and the United States have called for a renewed international effort to fight Islamic State militants.

Francois Hollande and Barack Obama have been meeting to discuss strengthening cooperation on military intelligence in the wake of the attacks on Paris in which 130 people were killed.

Obama expressed his solidarity and sympathy for France and said “IS poses a serious threat to us all but fear mustn’t be allowed to divide us.”

Both men also said ISIL must be destroyed, its ideology defeated and they insisted that a political solution must be found that does not result in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remaining in power.

And there was support for Turkey over its downing of a Russian fighter jet.
Obama said Turkey had a right to defend itself and called for dialogue but he also added the shooting underlines the ongoing problem with Russia’s operations close to Turkey’s border.

“Moscow is focused on helping Assad and is targeting moderate opposition in Syria rather than ISIL,” he said.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-11-25

[webfact]

Obama and Hollande pledge solidarity against Islamic State
By JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a show of Western solidarity, President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande vowed Tuesday to escalate airstrikes against the Islamic State and bolster intelligence sharing following the deadly attacks in Paris. They called on Russia to join the international efforts, but only if Moscow ends its support for Syria's embattled president.

"Russia is the outlier," Obama said during a joint White House news conference with Hollande.

Tuesday's meeting came hours after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. The incident underscored the complex military landscape in Syria, where a sprawling cast of countries and rebel groups are engaged on the battlefield and in the skies overhead, sometimes with minimal coordination.

Obama said Russian cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State would be "enormously helpful." But he insisted a partnership is impossible as long as Russia stands by Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is blamed by the U.S. for plunging his country into chaos and creating the vacuum that allowed the Islamic State to strengthen.

"We hope that they refocus their attention on what is the most substantial threat, and that they serve as a constructive partner," Obama said of Russia.

Hollande concurred, saying France wants to work alongside Russia, but only if President Vladimir Putin "fully commits" to supporting a political transition in Syria.

Hollande's alignment with Obama was notable, given that he was expected to urge the U.S. president to put aside some of his differences with Russia to build a new coalition to fight the extremists. But Hollande's mission quickly became entangled with the fallout from the downed Russian military plane.

Obama cautioned that information about the incident was still emerging. However, he did say that Turkey had a "right to defend its territory and its airspace."

Even before the incident between Turkey and Russia, Hollande faced a tough challenge in getting Obama to agree to a partnership with Moscow. The White House is deeply skeptical of Putin's motivations, given his longstanding support for Assad, and has accused Putin of bombing rebels fighting the Syrian leader instead of targeting the Islamic State.

Hollande will meet with Putin Thursday in Russia, part of his diplomatic effort to build support for an intensified campaign against IS. The terror group is blamed for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more at restaurants, a concert venue and outside a soccer stadium.

The attacks in the heart of Europe sparked fears of terrorism in the U.S., as well as an outpouring of solidarity with the French. Obama spoke warmly of America's affection for France, noting that he keeps a photograph by his bed of his wife Michelle and him kissing in the city's Luxembourg Gardens.

Hollande welcomed the U.S. show of unity, but suggested he was more interested in concrete actions than kind words.

"The Paris attacks generated a lot of emotions," he said through an interpreter. "But that's not enough. We must act."

Obama and Hollande pledged to increase airstrikes against extremist targets, take back Islamic State-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria, and focus more on disrupting the terrorists' financial networks. However, Hollande joined Obama in refusing to intervene militarily on the ground in Iraq and Syria, saying that is a role for local forces.

Shortly after their meeting, a French official in Washington said French warplanes had struck an Islamic State command center located west of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

The U.S. has deployed more than 3,000 troops to Iraq to train and assist security forces there. Efforts to train and equip moderate rebel groups in Syria have struggled, and Obama has authorized the deployment of 50 special operations forces to jumpstart the program.

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. Obama suggested the Paris attacks had prompted "new openness" among coalition members to step up their involvement, though he did not outline any specific commitments.

The military planning comes amid a parallel diplomatic effort to ease Assad from office. Russia has agreed in principle to a new process that would lead to U.N.-supervised elections within 18 months but continues to oppose efforts to explicitly remove Assad.

Hollande said he wouldn't set a deadline for Assad leaving office because "it must be as soon as possible." Obama suggested the solution hinged on Assad "choosing not to run" in the next Syrian elections.

Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year, has left more than 250,000 people dead and has displaced millions, sparking a refugee crisis in Europe.

The Paris attacks have raised fears in Europe and the U.S. that terrorists might try to sneak into the West as part of the refugee flow. In Washington, the House has passed legislation tightening vetting for refugees from Syria and Iraq, though the White House contends the additional restrictions would effectively block people from those countries from coming to the U.S.

Hollande has said France will press forward with its plans to accept 30,000 Syrian refugees. But he acknowledged Tuesday that there was a need to tighten Europe's open borders.

"I reject identifying migration and terrorism," Hollande said. "At the same time, we must control the border."
___

AP writers Kathleen Hennessey and Cara Anna contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-11-25

[LuckyNo4]

“President Hollande and I agreed that Russia’s strikes against the moderate opposition only bolster the (Bashar) Assad regime, whose brutality has helped to fuel the rise of ISIL."

Nonsense, Assad is the democratically elected leader of his sovereign country and Russia is obligated to defend its close Ally, and your policy of regime change, is illegal in every way. Assad doesnt fuel ISIL, you do. Its your weapons they are using, its your friends buying the oil ISIL are selling. You beat IRAQs standing army in a matter of days and you expect us to believe that a rag tag bunch (numbers quoted at 50,000 members ) of terrorists have kept the worlds superpower at bay for over a year. The world isn't stupid anymore, we know what you are doing. Regime change for greed of resources, is unacceptable. ISIL ISIS DAESH whatever you want to call those bastards, they are your Frankenstein, do your job and destroy them and leave Assad be. Let his people vote him out if that's what they want, their internal affairs are not your concern. How do you look at yourself in the mirror with the hundreds of thousands of innocents dead because of your foreign policies? The world wants peace not war!

[craigt3365]

Assad's election was not done according to international standards and was not accepted by many in the international community. It was a sham.

You don't think Russia's bombing of muslims in Syria is fueling ISIL? Or the refugee crisis? A whole bunch of the foreign fighters in Syria right now are from the Caucasus'. Fighting Assad.

[LuckyNo4]

Assad's election was not done according to international standards and was not accepted by many in the international community. It was a sham.

You don't think Russia's bombing of muslims in Syria is fueling ISIL? Or the refugee crisis? A whole bunch of the foreign fighters in Syria right now are from the Caucasus'. Fighting Assad.

"Assad's election was not done according to international standards and was not accepted by many in the international community. It was a sham."

​So are many others around the world but they don't get countries bombing them and queuing up to rape and pillage them.

You don't think Russia's bombing of muslims in Syria is fueling ISIL? Or the refugee crisis?

ISIL is an engineered distraction from the bigger picture. Russia isn't to blame they've only just joined the fight. These terrorist bastards have been running wild for a couple of years now. Without US weapons they wouldn't have grown the way they have and they'd still be throwing rocks at each other.

[retarius]

Assad's election was not done according to international standards and was not accepted by many in the international community. It was a sham.

You don't think Russia's bombing of muslims in Syria is fueling ISIL? Or the refugee crisis? A whole bunch of the foreign fighters in Syria right now are from the Caucasus'. Fighting Assad.

The UN has accepted Assad as the legitimate head of state of Syria. If his election wasn't good enough for those countries that want him deposed for their own self-interest, that is of little concern, since no election would have satisfied them, as no international law applies to them. They are all playing dangerous double games (the US, Turkey, Saudi, UAE, NATO) and these games will come back to haunt them at some point...they always do.

[craigt3365]

Assad's election was not done according to international standards and was not accepted by many in the international community. It was a sham.

You don't think Russia's bombing of muslims in Syria is fueling ISIL? Or the refugee crisis? A whole bunch of the foreign fighters in Syria right now are from the Caucasus'. Fighting Assad.

The UN has accepted Assad as the legitimate head of state of Syria. If his election wasn't good enough for those countries that want him deposed for their own self-interest, that is of little concern, since no election would have satisfied them, as no international law applies to them. They are all playing dangerous double games (the US, Turkey, Saudi, UAE, NATO) and these games will come back to haunt them at some point...they always do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_presidential_election,_2014

The Gulf Cooperation Council, the European Union and the United States dismissed the election as illegitimate.^[5][6][7][8]Attempts to hold an election under the circumstances of an ongoing civil war were criticized by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon,^[9] and it was widely reported that the elections lacked independent election monitoring.^[10] An international delegation led by allies of Assad^[11] from more than 30 countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa and Venezuela^[12][13] issued a statement claiming the election was "free, fair and transparent".^[14]

Some rebel groups vowed to disrupt the elections in any way possible, including bombing and shelling polling stations and government-controlled areas.^{[15][16][17][18]} Another statement, issued by the Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, the Sham Corps, the Army of Mujahedeen, and the Islamic Front, said they would not "target voters but warned people to stay at home in case the Syrian government did". There were 50 reported deaths from the shelling by the rebels.^[19]

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA3K0ST20140421?irpc=932

Syrian election will undermine political solution: U.N.'s Ban

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warns that Syria's newly announced presidential election will undermine efforts to achieve a political solution to Syria's three-year-old civil war if it goes ahead on June 3, the United Nations said on Monday.

Ban and international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi have "warned that the holding of elections in the current circumstances amid the ongoing conflict and massive displacement will damage the political process and hamper the prospects for a political solution," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"Such elections are incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Geneva communique," he said, referring to a June 2012 agreement on seeking a political transition in Syria.

[teelac5]

Love the way Obama calls them 'Moderate Rebels' you think they'll be moderate if they ever take power? What a bunch of fools our leaders are.