Hollande vows attacks will not change policy

PARIS: Terrorist attacks on France only reinforce its resolve to act on the international stage, intervening in world hot spots and using its diplomatic weight to help solve crises, President Francois Hollande said yesterday.

France, a permanent UN Security Council member and nuclear power, has thousands of troops hunting down alQaeda- linked militants in Africa’s Sahel-Sahara region and is part of the US-led coalition striking Islamic State fighters in Iraq.

It is a key player in diplomacy ranging from the Iranian nuclear negotiations to brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

“France has come out of this ordeal with its determination intact to act on the international scene,” Hollande told an annual gathering of about 200 foreign and French ambassadors. “Our response must be firm and can only be collective.”

Hollande has been applauded in France for his handling of attacks during which militants killed 17 people, both in terms of security forces’ quick response in track down the killers and his sharing in the grief of victims’ families.

He urged greater co-operation internationally to tackle foreign fighters travelling to and from Syria and Iraq, calling on EU nations in particular to strengthen the bloc’s antiterrorism apparatus.

Despite calls by some former diplomats, political opponents and allies for France to restore ties with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, notably in the area of intelligence, Hollande said Assad and Islamic State rebels were the same enemy.

France has ruled out strik- ing Islamic State in Syria, where Paris provides equipment and training to “moderate” forces, saying that solely hitting the militants would play into the Syrian government’s hands.

Hollande said any solution in Syria could only be negotiated by representative members of the Syrian government and opposition, and that France was ready to work with the UN and countries with an influence in Syria to achieve a deal.

He said France already proved its willingness to act after ousting the militants in Mali in early 2013 and intervening in Central African Republic. But he said the worsening situation in Nigeria and Libya needed more international attention. – Reuters

Francois Hollande