TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Obama, Hollande talks complicated by Russian plane incident

President Barack Obama meets with President Francois Hollande of France in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday

Julie Pace and Kathleen Hennessey (The Jakarta Post)
Washington
Tue, November 24, 2015

Share This Article

Change Size

Obama, Hollande talks complicated by Russian plane incident President Barack Obama meets with President Francois Hollande of France in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday. (AP/Andrew Harnik) (AP/Andrew Harnik)

P

span class="inline inline-center">President Barack Obama meets with President Francois Hollande of France in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

President Barack Obama will stand in solidarity with French President Francois Hollande at the White House Tuesday, 11 days after the Paris attacks, in a visit complicated by Turkey's shoot-down of a Russian warplane.

Hollande's trip to Washington is part of a diplomatic push to get the international community to bolster the campaign against the Islamic State, the militant group that has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The French president planned to urge Obama to work with Russia to build a new coalition to fight the extremists.

Even before the incident between Turkey and Russia, Hollande faced a tough challenge in getting Obama to agree to a partnership with Moscow. The US is deeply skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin's motivations, given his long-standing support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The White House had no immediate comment on how the shoot-down of the Russian plane would impact the talks between Obama and Hollande. US forces were not involved in the incident, according to an American defense official, who was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Nearly five years of clashes between Assad's government and rebel forces have created a vacuum that allowed the Islamic State to thrive. The group appears to now be focusing on targets outside its base in Syria and Iraq, including attacks in Lebanon and Turkey and the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt.

Given the rash of attacks, Obama is now facing increased pressure at home and abroad to ramp up US efforts to destroy the militants. So far, Obama is resisting calls to either change or significantly escalate his approach, and instead is focused on getting other countries to offer more counterintelligence, humanitarian and military assistance.

"The United States is certainly pulling more than our own weight," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "And we believe that there is more that can be done if countries are willing to contribute additional resources."

The US campaign has centered largely on launching airstrikes, while training and assisting security forces on the ground in Iraq. Efforts to train and equip moderate rebel groups in Syria have struggled, and Obama has authorized the deployment of 50 special operations forces to the country to jumpstart the program.

France has stepped up its airstrikes following the Paris attacks, relying in part on US intelligence to hit targets in Raqqa, the Islamic State group's stronghold in Syria. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he would seek parliamentary approval this week for Britain to begin airstrikes as well.

Hollande wants the US-led coalition to start cooperating with Russia, which is also launching airstrikes in Syria. While Putin says his country is targeting the Islamic State militants, the US contends Moscow is going after rebels fighting Assad, a Kremlin ally whom the US wants pushed out.

Last week, Hollande called for the US and Russia to set aside their policy divisions over Syria and "fight this terrorist army in a broad, single coalition." But his office acknowledges that "coordination" sounds like a far more realistic goal.

"We are not talking about a command center. We are talking about coordination of methods and exchange of intelligence," a French diplomat said on Monday. The diplomat wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the subject and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earnest said the US would "continue the conversation" with Putin but suggested Obama would make no promises to Hollande during Tuesday's visit.

From Washington, Hollande will travel to Moscow for meetings with Putin.

Beyond their discussions on military cooperation, Obama and Hollande are expected to discuss diplomatic efforts to achieve a political transition in Syria. The US and France support a transition that would lead to the departure of Assad, who has overseen a civil war in his country that created a vacuum for the Islamic State group to thrive.

While Russia is backing a new diplomatic effort in Syria, Moscow still refuses to support steps that explicitly call for removing Assad from power.

The quagmire in Syria has dragged on for nearly five years, and criticism of Obama's strategy appears only to grow louder.

On Sunday, both Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Leon Panetta, Obama's former defense secretary, said the US effort wasn't measuring up. Feinstein called for more aggressive action and additional special operations forces in Syria.

"I don't think the approach is sufficient to the job," Feinstein said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

___

Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

 

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.