French President Francois Hollande has said that Russia and France had agreed to coordinate strikes against Islamic State terrorists after talks with Vladimir Putin. Mr Hollande said at a press conference with his Russian counterpart yesterday that the strikes against IS group will be intensified and be the object of coordination. He added that the strikes would focus on the transportation of oil.
Hollande was in Moscow for the last leg of a diplomatic mission to rally support for a wider coalition against IS, with the two leaders finding common ground as recent victims of attacks that killed hundreds of people. Russian President Putin said that they agreed to intensify their joint work on the anti-terrorist track, to improve the exchange of information in the fight with terrorism, establish constructive work between military specialists.
Countries in the US-led coalition leading a parallel campaign to bomb IS targets have repeatedly accused Moscow of seeking to bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime by attacking moderate groups fighting both Assad and IS.
The role of Assad, however, remained a deeply divisive issue following the talks in the Kremlin, as the Russian leader said the Syrian army is a “natural partner in the fight against terrorism” battling on the ground. Hollande meanwhile argued that Assad “has no place in the future of Syria.