Divisions remain, but Putin proceeds: Agrees with Hollande on fight against IS
World
Divisions remain, but Putin proceeds: Agrees with Hollande on fight against IS
Although they remain at odds over their approach toward Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande agreed Thursday to tighten cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State group — two days after Turkey downed a Russian warplane near the Syrian border. While Hollande said the Syrian head of state “does not have his place in Syria’s future,” Putin — Russia being Assad’s staunchest ally — stressed that “the Syrian president’s fate should be entirely in the hands of the Syrian people.”
We view the U.S.-led coalition with respect and stand ready to cooperate with it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Hollande and Putin proceeded to agree on increasing intelligence sharing, intensifying their airstrikes against IS in Syria and cooperating on selecting targets. Putin said cooperation would be in jeopardy if there were any repeats of Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet. For now, he said he would order Russia’s military to intensify cooperation with the French armed forces and viewed that as part of creating a broader international coalition bringing together Russia and Western states.
And we proceed from the position that there will be no repeat of this, otherwise we’ll have no need of cooperation with anybody, any coalition, any country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
