WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The French government will not send its military to fight the Islamic State on the ground in Syria, French President Francois Hollande stated at a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
“France will not intervene militarily on the ground,” Hollande said. “It is for the local forces to do so.”
Hollande added, however, that France will intensify its airstrikes against the terrorists and will make sure that ISIL resources are cut off.
The French president is conducting an intensive diplomatic tour to shore up counterterrorism support in response to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed some 130 lives on November 13.
On Thursday, two days after Hollande’s visit to Washington, DC, the French president is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow where they hope to reach an agreement on coordinating anti-ISIL military operations in Syria.
"[I] agreed with President Putin that we must share our intelligence so that we can act in coordination [in Syria]," Hollande said regarding topics that will be raised in his trip to Moscow.
The United States and France have agreed to increase the number of airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in an effort to disrupt and dismantle the terrorist organization, according to Hollande.
"Militarily, it is about destroying Daesh [Islamic State] no matter where they are, it is about taking out their financing, hunting down their leaders, dismantling their networks and taking back the land they currently control," Hollande said. "We therefore decided President Obama and myself to scale up our strikes both in Syria and in Iraq."
Hollande said that France and the United States would also "broaden" their efforts to increase intelligence sharing with regard to the targets they aim at in the region.
