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| President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande embrace during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Hollande's visit to Washington is part of a diplomatic offensive to get the international community to bolster the campaign against the Islamic State militants. |
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 group 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."
The
White House said late Tuesday Obama spoke with Turkey's president,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss the downing of the Russian plane. In
the call, Obama expressed U.S. and NATO 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.
Obama
also convened his National Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the
response to recent terrorist attacks by the Islamic State group. The
White House said the president was told there is currently no specific,
credible threat to the U.S. homeland from the group.
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.
