World

Obama says will not relent in fight against Islamic State, urges Russia help

Obama hopes Russia helps tackle the Islamic State by agreeing to leadership transition in Syria

Reuters November 22, 2015

PHOTO: REUTERS

KUALA LAMPUR: United States President Barack Obama on Sunday said the US and its allies would not relent in its fight to combat Islamic State extremists and would hunt down their leaders and cut off the group's financing.

Obama, Putin agree need for UN-negotiated Syria talks, ceasefire

"Destroying (Islamic State) is not only a realistic goal, were going to get it done," he told a news conference after a meeting of Asian leaders in Malaysia.

"We will destroy them. We will take back land they are currently in, take out their financing, hunt down leadership, dismantle their networks, supply lines and we will destroy them."

Obama rules out US troops on the ground to fight Islamic State

Obama said it "would be helpful" if Russia directed its focus on tackling Islamic State and he hoped Moscow would agree to a leadership transition in Syria that meant its president stepping down.

COMMENTS (5)

whitesky | 8 years ago | Reply @S.R.H. Hashmi: conspiracy theory in the name of security analysis is very much flourishing in Pakistan . USA always favoured autocratic rulers including that of Pakistan as dealing with them is much easier comparing to democratic government.

S.R.H. Hashmi | 9 years ago | Reply President Barack Obama vowed on Sunday that the United States and its international partners “will not relent” in the fight against Daesh, insisting the world would not accept the extremists attacks of civilians in Paris and elsewhere as the “new normal’. Perhaps Obama’s ‘elsewhere’ does not include Gaza where the Israeli extremist and terrorist state killed, in its last attack on Gaza, over two thousand innocent civilian men, women and children, without inviting any retaliation whatsoever from the United States; not even a condemnation in the mildest of forms. In fact during his recent trip, the cordial welcome that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received in the US, encouraged him to voice pessimism about the prospect of peace with the Palestinians, suggesting the current stalemate was likely to remain in place.” What is even more disgusting is that the statement remained unchallenged from the US side which was busy working out a new aid package for Israel which included raising the annual economic aid from $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion apart from supplying Israel stealth fighter jets among other armaments. And despite seeing what the removal of strongmen Saddam Hussain and Col. Moammar Gaddafi did to Iraq and Libya respectively, Obama offered, what he considered to be a wise counsel, to the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, suggesting to him to drop his support for Bashar al-Assad, insisting that violence in Syria can not be stopped as long as Assad remained in office. However, as the experience with Iraq and Libya clearly shows, with diverse groups fighting for gaining control of Syria, a free-for-all is sure to start in Syria if Assad was removed, and Assad is the only one who could keep the country in one peace. I suppose after dismembering Iraq and Libya, the US president considers it his sacred, official duty to dismember Syria, another strong opponent of Israel. And since Turkey is no more on the strongest of terms with, and is of no use to Israel anymore, maybe Turkey will be next under attack; in fact the process has already been set in motion, with initial Syria and Libya-like disturbances already visible in Turkey. I think it is time for Muslim rulers to forget their ethnic and sectarian differences and join hands for their survival, instead of falling victim to their own rivalries and jealousies and being eliminated one-by-one by the creators, financiers, supporters and abettors of Israel, namely the United States and its Western partners. Karachi

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Shahid Khan | 9 years ago | Reply America created ISIS to 'destablize' Middle east and continue her Influence through the puppet govts.

Maria | 9 years ago | Reply I think, Pakistan should also participate in this war to save all the Muslims from ISIS.

Prada | 9 years ago | Reply I am beginning to feel sorry for Islamic State - especially the Jihadi Brides who left their good life in the West in pursuit of a misplaced ideology. The men deserve nothing better.

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