PARIS — The US-led coalition that seeks to defeat the Islamic State fundamentalist movement has sufficient military means but needs to boost intelligence gathering to wield its airpower with greater effect, President Barack Obama said today.
"Improveing our intelligence gathering … "allows us to accelerate strikes against ISIL," he told a news conference held at the UN's COP21 UN climate change conference that opened yesterday Monday.
"A lot of discussion over the last couple of weeks was the pace of airstrikes," he said. "The pace of airstrikes is not constrained by the amount of planes or missiles that we have. The pace has been dictated by how many effective targets we have. And our intelligence continues to improve."
French President François Hollande has in the past fortnight met with Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron in the last two weeks, seeking to forge a cooperative effort against the ISIS, often referred to as ISIL, in Syria, following the Nov. 13 Paris attacks here that left 130 slain and some 350 wounded.
Obama said he had had talks spoke with Hollande and other leaders and was confident to have the momentum and resources to "degrade and destroy ISIL." There would have to be a political resolution in Syria.
The coalition allies should drain the finances that support the ISIS, otherwise their foreign recruits would train to become battle-hardened fighters, return and strike in home countries in Europe, the US and nations such as Australia and Singapore, he said.
"We’ve got to choke them off," he Obama said. "We have to choke off how they make money, choke off their ability to bring in new fighters because, you know, we’ve taken tens of thousands of their fighters off the battlefield."
There is a military approach but there is also a political path to resolving the Syrian crisis, based on the talks held in Vienna, he said. A political settlement will require Russia to change its military policy. Russia has lost an airliner, seen a fighter jet shot down, and suffered losses of military personnel.
"I think it is an indication Mr. Putin recognizes there will not be a military resolution to the situation soon. The Russians now have been there for several weeks, over a month, and the situation has not changed much," he Obama said. "I think Mr. Putin understands that, with Afghanistan fresh in the memory, for him to simply get bogged down in an inconclusive and paralyzing civil conflict is not the outcome that he's looking for." he said.
A political resolution will require Russia eventually to recognize the opposition groups which are fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, and which have been the target of most of the Russian airstrikes.
"(As) part of the Vienna process you are going to see the … moderate opposition groups exist within Syria. Some of which, frankly, we don't have a lot in common with, but do represent significant factions inside Syria," Obama said. "They'll be coming together to form at least a negotiation unit. My hope and expectation is that that political track will move at the same time as we continue to apply greater … pressure."
The US president noted French military contributions and a German announcement of additional resources in the coalition, adding, "The Brits have been steady partners in Iraq and I think are now very interested to expand against ISIL in Syria with … increase in intensity in the air and progressively on the ground."
The British government has set a controversial parliamentary vote tomorrow for extending airstrikes by the Royal Air Force in Syria. That would expand bombing missions beyond ISIS targets in Iraq, and has been was requested by France in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks.
Obama said he had met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and had asked for Turkey to close its border with Syria, particularly 98 kilometers used as a transit point for "foreign fighters" and fuel shipments, which help finance ISIS and its activities.
"So we have been having our militaries work together to determine how a combination of air and Turkish ground forces on the Turkish side of the border can do a much better job of sealing the border," he said. Erdogan understood the need for sealing the frontier, he said.
On the importance of the COP21 conference, which runs Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, Obama said, "Climate change is an economic and security imperative we have to follow."
Climate change is akin to the problem of terrorism, he said. After the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, it was natural for people to despair.
"But look at Paris, you can't tear down Paris because of the demented actions of a handful of individuals — the beauty, the joy, the life, the culture, the people, the diversity," he said. "That's going to win out every time.
The COP21 conference seeks to sign up countries to limit the rise in global temperature to 2°C to avoid global warming. So far, countries have submitted plans which would limit the rise to 2.7°C. The US has proposed a legal binding to each nation's commitment to stem its emissions.
Email: ptran@defensenews.com
