War on IS
US President Barack Obama vowed yesterday to step up efforts to eliminate Islamic State in Syria and prevent it from carrying out attacks like those in Paris, while European leaders urged Russia to focus its military efforts on the radicals.
Speaking at a G20 leaders’ summit in Turkey, Obama described the killings in Paris, claimed by the Islamic State, as an attack on the civilised world and said the United States would work with France to hunt down those responsible.
“The skies have been darkened by the horrific attacks that took place in Paris just a day and a half ago,” Obama said after meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
“We will redouble our efforts, working with other members of the coalition, to bring about a peaceful transition in Syria and to eliminate Daesh as a force that can create so much pain and suffering for people in Paris, in Ankara, and in other parts of the globe,” he added, using an alternative name for Islamic State. Obama and his Western allies now face the question of how the West should respond after the Islamic State again demonstrated it posed a threat far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
Washington already expects France to retaliate by taking on a larger role in the US-led coalition’s bombing campaign against the IS.
“We’re confident that in the coming days and weeks, working with the French, we will be able to intensify our strikes against the IS both in Syria and Iraq to make clear there is no safe haven for these terrorists,” US Deputy National security adviser Ben Rhodes said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”. But European Council President Donald Tusk said Russia too should focus its military operations on the Islamic State, rather than on the Syrian opposition battling President Bashar Al Assad, urging cooperation between Washington and Moscow.
“It should be our common aim to coordinate our actions against Daesh and for sure the cooperation between the United States and Russia is a crucial one,” he said.
Photo Caption:
US President Barack Obama (R) posing for a photograph with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, yesterday
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