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US Sidelined? Russia, France Form Their Own Anti-ISIL Alliance in Syria

© AFP 2023 / Claude ParisFrench sailors walk by a Super-Etendard jetfighter on the deck of France's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle before to leave its home port of Toulon, southern France, Wednesday, Nov.18, 2015
French sailors walk by a Super-Etendard jetfighter on the deck of France's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle before to leave its home port of Toulon, southern France, Wednesday, Nov.18, 2015 - Sputnik International
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The tragedy of Paris seems to have accelerated long-awaited political changes: "the United States can no longer play its self-declared hegemonic, or only super-power, role in the world, and Russia has returned to the center stage of world affairs", according to NYU political science professor Stephen Cohen.

In this photo released on Sunday, June 28, 2015, by a website of Islamic State militants, an Islamic State militant waves his group's flag as he and another celebrate in Fallujah, Iraq, west of Baghdad - Sputnik International
France and Russia Defeated ‘More Formidable Enemy’ Than ISIL Before
“The savage terrorist acts on Paris almost immediately resulted in a French-Russian military alliance against the Islamic State in Syria, with French President Hollande and most of Europe dramatically breaking with the Obama Administration’s nearly two-year-old policy of isolating Putin’s Russia over the Ukrainian crisis,” Professor Stephen Cohen, Contributing Editor to The Nation magazine and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies & Politics at NYU and Princeton, wrote in his article.

After the terrorist attacks in the country, Paris demonstrates “the growing decline of Washington’s leadership and influence even with its own Western alliance,” the expert says.

In this photo taken on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015, a Syrian flag flies above the village of Maaloula, north of Damascus, Syria - Sputnik International
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‘We Want to Win With Russia, but Sanctions Must Remain’
Meanwhile, President Hollande’s approval rating jumped to its highest since January, the first public poll since the Paris terrorist attacks showed.

About 33 percent of voters approve of Hollande’s performance, up from 25 percent in October, Bloomberg quotes BVA Opinion as saying in a monthly poll.

The increase gives Hollande his best rating in this poll since in the days after the attacks in January on the French weekly Charlie Hebdo.

Professor Cohen also noted that within Europe, “the leadership in regard to Russia may now shift to Hollande from German Chancellor Merkel, whose own leadership is in growing crisis due to her policies toward Greece, Ukraine and the Middle Eastern refugees flooding the European continent.”

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, left, and President of the French Republic Francois Hollande - Sputnik International
France to Find Compromise With Russia if Hollande Wants to Defeat ISIL
Europe now seems to accept President Putin’s longstanding argument that “reversing the advances of the Islamic State requires strengthening the Syrian state and its army as “boots on the ground,” and thus Syrian President Assad himself, not removing Assad as the Obama administration has insisted for almost two years.”

At the same time, Professor Cohen notes that Europe’s support for the US-backed regime in Kiev “continues to wane”, describing the Poroshenko administration as “yet another government in deepening crisis" and Ukraine as the chief obstacle to EU-Russia relations.

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