Obama ‘Confident’ US-led Coalition Can ‘Destroy’ ISIS
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The White House(PARIS) — One week after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syria border, President Obama continued his effort to refocus the battle against the Islamic State, while deescalating tensions between Russia and Turkey.
Speaking at a press conference in Paris Tuesday, President Obama said he is “confident” the U.S. and its allies will “continue building momentum” to defeat ISIS.
“I am confident that we can continue building momentum and adding resources to our effort to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL,” the president said. He added that the U.S. and its allies are also working to disrupt terror plots and to promote a political solution in Syria.
The president lauded the French people for hosting a major international climate conference this week, calling it a “remarkable display of resolve” just two weeks after the terror attacks that rocked Paris.
“The first place I visited when I arrived on Sunday night was the Bataclan so that I could pay my respects on behalf of the American people who share the French people’s resolve,” he said. “It was a powerful reminder of the awful human toll of those attacks.”
Leaders from around the globe set upon Paris for the highly-publicized summit. But while they may have preferred to discuss carbon emissions, global terrorism dominated the headlines coming from Paris.
Earlier Tuesday, Obama held a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging the Turkish leader to “deescalate tensions” between Turkey and Russia.
“I want to be very clear: Turkey is a NATO ally. Along with our allies, the United States supports Turkey’s right to defend itself, and its airspace and its territory, and we’re very much committed to Turkey’s security and its sovereignty,” Obama said after the meeting. “We all have a common enemy and that is ISIL and I want to make sure that we focus on that threat and I want to make sure that we remain focused on the need to bring about some sort of political resolution in Syria.”
Erdogan said Turkey is “willing to resort to diplomatic language” to resolve the tension between his country and Russia.
“We don’t want to invest in tensions. We want to avoid the tensions. We don’t want to get hurt and we don’t want no one to get hurt,” Erdogan said. “We want peace to prevail at all times and we want the peace which will prevail.”
The meeting came one day after Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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