NEW YORK // The United States and France have agreed to intensify airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq and increase support to forces fighting the extremist group on the ground.
French president Francois Hollande, speaking after a 90-minute meeting at the White House with Barack Obama, said the two allies would “scale up our strikes both in Syria and in Iraq to broaden our scope to strengthen our intelligence sharing regarding the targets”.
“The aim is to take back key locations in the hands of Daesh,” Mr Hollande said, speaking side by side with Mr Obama. He added that closing the border between Turkey and Syria to terrorists is “a matter of urgency”.
Mr Hollande’s visit to the White House was part of a series of meetings with world leaders involved in the fight against ISIL following the November 13 attacks on Paris. The French president is hoping to increase coordination on strategy against the group.
On Monday he met with British prime minister David Cameron and is due to meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel tomorrow. Finally, he is scheduled to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
In his meeting with Mr Obama, Mr Hollande was also expected to seek greater military commitment from the White House, and perhaps even an alliance with Moscow.
However, although the French president departed with a strong statement of support from his US counterpart, it is unlikely that Mr Obama agreed to any major new military role for the United States in Syria.
Last Thursday, Mr Obama defended his administration’s strategy against ISIL and insisted that it is leading to steady gains. He said he would resist calls by allies and members of both parties in the US congress to escalate Washington’s involvement in Syria in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The bilateral White House talks also likely touched on Mr Hollande’s upcoming meeting with Mr Putin. US officials are reportedly worried that Moscow may try to entice Paris to end its support for a new round of economic sanctions over Ukraine in exchange for more muscular action against ISIL or flexibility in diplomacy over the fate of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.
Meanwhile, Mr Hollande’s visit to Moscow will test whether Mr Putin is willing to cooperate more closely with Washington over Syria.
“Those who are threatening us are threatening the Russians and we must therefore coordinate ourselves but on that basis,” Mr Hollande said at Tuesday’s joint press conference.
He added that he would tell Mr Putin that “France can work together with Russia if it concentrates its military action on Daesh ... and if Russia fully commits to a political solution in Syria”.
But bridging the strategic divide between Russia and the US-led coalition will be a difficult task for Mr Hollande. Mr Obama made clear on Tuesday that he sees Russia’s intervention in Syria as one aimed at backing Mr Al Assad and not primarily fighting ISIL.
“If their priority is attacking the moderate opposition that might be members of an inclusive Syrian government [they] are not going to get support from us,” he said.
Russia is “undermining our effort to reach a political settlement, and they are doing that because they are concerned primarily with propping up the failed regime of Bashar al-Assad,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday.
In recent weeks, the diplomatic track aimed at ending the Syrian civil war so that all sides can focus on defeating ISIL has gathered momentum.
International backers of the rebels and Damascus brokered an agreement in Vienna earlier this month to restart direct talks between the regime and opposition in January. Meanwhile, US secretary of state John Kerry met with UAE and Saudi foreign ministers in Abu Dhabi on Monday to discuss a meeting of opposition forces in Riyadh next month aimed at coordinating their negotiating positions.
However, a key question remains over Russia’s willingness to agree to Mr Al Assad’s departure after a political transition, and its ability to convince Tehran on the issue.
Mr Putin met with Iranian leaders on Monday in his first visit to the country since 2007. A number of economic and military deals were announced, with Iran’s ambassador to Russia saying that the process of supplying the controversial S-300 anti-aircraft system had begun, according to Reuters.
Mr Obama on Tuesday tempered expectations that the Vienna process would lead to swift agreement over the key issue of Mr Al Assad.
“As soon as we have a framework for a political transition” and a new constitution and elections, “I think it’s in that context that we can start looking at Mr Assad choosing not to run ... and seeing a new Syria emerge,” the US president said. “But it’s going to be hard and we should not be under any illusions.”
A key component of Mr Hollande’s talks with Mr Putin will be the political negotiations in Syria and Russia’s position on Mr Al Assad, a French diplomat in residence at the Washington Institute think tank, Olivier Decottignies, said on Monday.
Russia’s concerns about ISIL – which has thousands of Chechen members – overlap with the West’s, he added. In addition, Moscow has maintained diplomatic channels with the Gulf countries, Turkey and the western backers of Syrian rebels, which Iran has not.
But so far there are no signs that Russia is seeking to drive a wedge between Iran and Mr Al Assad. On Monday, a Kremlin spokesman was quoted as saying that Mr Putin and Iran’s supreme leader agreed world powers must not try to impose their political will on Syria.
tkhan@thenational.ae
