Putin agrees to work with anti-ISIL coalition
Cameron: Bombing will ‘make us safer’
Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President François Hollande on Thursday that he is willing to work more closely with the U.S.-led coalition battling the Islamic State in Syria.
“Our positions are the same,” Putin said. “We are prepared to work with you.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron, earlier Thursday, publicly set out his case for the United Kingdom joining U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, saying that to do so would “make us safer.”
Cameron told British parliamentarians that the country was already being targeted by the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, and that it was imperative that they “take action” now.
The Royal Air Force is already bombing ISIL targets in Iraq, but Britain’s Parliament voted against strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces in 2013 when allegations surfaced that it was using chemical weapons against opposition forces.
The diplomatic development with Russia came as Hollande traveled to Moscow as part of a week-long effort to bolster sup- port for the fight against the militant group responsible for the Paris attacks that killed 130 people on Nov. 13.
On Tuesday, the French president met with President Obama in Washington.
Putin and Hollande said they agreed to increase the exchange of intelligence on ISIL and to work to improve coordination over airstrikes.
“What we agreed, and this is important, is to strike only terrorists and the (Islamic State) and to not strike forces fighting terrorism,” Hollande said, speaking at a joint news conference with Putin.
The French president’s trip to Moscow had threatened to be overshadowed by the downing of a Russian jet near the Syrian border this week by Turkey.
Turkey is a NATO member that backs the West’s assertion that peace in Syria can be achieved only if Assad steps down. Putin views Assad as a “natural ally” and has stated that it should be up to the Syrian people to decide who governs them.
Putin criticized Washington on Thursday, saying that as the leader of the anti-ISIL coalition it should have ensured that a Russian warplane was not targeted. “We proceed from the assumption that it will never happen again,” he said. “Otherwise we don’t need any such cooperation with any country.”