European diplomat says French president will try to impress on Obama that world cannot afford to wait for two-year war of attrition in wake of Paris attacks
François Hollande will plead with Barack Obama to show greater urgency in the fight against Islamic State when the presidents meet in Washington next week, warning of a state of emergency in Europe.
French officials have been careful not to openly criticise the US’s strategy in Syria and Iraq but believe Obama must be made aware of the extent of the refugee crisis it has caused, a European diplomat said on Wednesday.
“The message that we want to send to the Americans is simply that the crisis is destabilising Europe,” said the diplomat, who did not wish to be named. “The problem is that the attacks in Paris and the refugee crisis show that we don’t have time. There is an emergency.”
Noting the debate raging among governments over how to handle the biggest movement of people to Europe since the second world war, he added: “It’s the foreign fighters but it’s also the migrants crisis which is dividing the Europeans, destabilising the continent, so we have to act quickly, telling the US administration the core interests of the Europeans, your best allies, are at stake.”
As Paris reels from the terrorist attacks that killed 129 people last week, Hollande will try to impress on Obama that there is a need to act now and the world cannot afford to wait for a war of attrition that might take two years. Some insiders believe that America has been slow to appreciate the effects of millions of refugees pouring out of Syria, partly because the US is an ocean away and far less vulnerable.
The European diplomat said: “That’s the reason why the French president will be in Washington on Tuesday before flying to Moscow to meet President Putin.”
France wants world leaders to redefine the strategy for taking on Isis and give it a greater sense of urgency.
The diplomat indicated that Europe supported the broad effort to cut off funding and the supply line of foreign fighters to Isis, but he rejected any notion of sending in ground troops, commenting: “Isis is dreaming about having western forces against them.”
Elsewhere, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, who returned from Paris on Tuesday, attempted to manage international expectations. He told the Overseas Security Advisory Council in Washington: “Let me make this clear: we don’t have any illusions about how complicated this is. Most people don’t think that another invasion by Americans in yet another Muslim country in which the local citizens are not prepared to fight back and hold the land that you then gain makes a lot of sense, which is why our strategy – and there is a strategy and it is clear and it’s working, not as fast as anybody would like, but working.”
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/paris-attacks-isis-hollande-france-obama
