G-20 leaders vow to close ranks against ‘face of evil’

Russia says terror financing flowing from 40 countries, including member states

BELEK:

As US President Barack Obama on Monday hailed an unprecedented opportunity to end the four-year war in Syria and destroy the militant "face of evil", Russian President Vladmir Putin reminded leaders at the G-20 summit in Turkey that it bore some of the blame.

World leaders took a first, cautious step towards uniting over how to stop the bloodshed in Syria and smash the Islamic State (IS) militant network behind the bombing and shooting that killed 129 people in the French capital.



"What is different this time, and gives us some degree of hope, is that for the first time all major countries on all sides of the Syrian conflict agree on a process to end this war," Obama said after a two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya in Turkey.



Islamic State leaders "will have no safe haven anywhere," he added at the annual gathering of leaders from Group of 20 top world economies, vowing a ruthless pursuit of the group but without putting US troops on the ground, which he said ‘would be a mistake’.

The attacks across Paris, which killed 132 people at a concert, restaurants and a soccer stadium on Friday, underlined the threat posed by the militant group far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq. The attacks overshadowed the two-day summit, which took place just 500 km (310 miles) from Syria.



"ISIL is the face of evil," Obama told a news conference, describing the attacks as a "terrible and sickening" setback but adding that progress against the group was being made.

"Here at the G-20, our nations have sent an unmistakable message, that we are united against this (IS) threat," he said.

Leaders at the summit described the massacre in Paris as an "unacceptable affront to all humanity", according to a rare separate statement accompanying a final communique.



Concretely, they will share intelligence to crack down on the movement of foreign fighters across borders, the statement said.

They also urged "all states" to share the financial burden of coping with refugees, with hundreds of thousands pouring out of war-torn Syria to take the often dangerous path to Europe.

Putin, though, was careful to remind that among the key lifelines for the militant group lay in some of the G-20 states. He said that terror financing comes from as many as 40 countries, including some countries who were represented at the summit.

Paris attacks could change NATO priorities – Russian deputy 

Russia ready to work with Syrian opposition

Speaking on the side lines of the summit, Putin said that Russia was ready to support Syria's opposition with air strikes in their fight against IS.

“I can confirm that we have established contacts with ... Syrian opposition on the battlefield which asked us to conduct air strikes," he said in Antalya.

He added that if western partners think it is time to improve ties with Russia again, Moscow is ready.



Solidarity

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who was attending the summit instead of President Francois Hollande, there was a solidarity at the summit on targeting IS.

"This is the first time the G-20 has actually gone into this sort of detail ... There was a real sense of solidarity between everyone present," Fabius said.

As the US-led coalition accelerated efforts to find partners in the fight on the ground, British Premier David Cameron said he wanted Britain to also carry out air strikes in Syria but needed to convince more lawmakers to back such action.



German Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, said that the fight against terrorism could not be won by military force alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2015.