Obama: ‘Russia Is Welcome To Be Part’ of Our Anti-ISIS Coalition
"Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend is territory and its airspace. I think it is very important right now for us to make sure both the Russians and the Turks are talking to each other, find out exactly what happened, and take measures to discourage any kind of escalation.
I do think that this points to an ongoing problem with the Russian operations in the sense that they are operating very closely to a Turkish border and they are going after moderate opposition that are supported by not only Turkey, but a wide range of countries. If Russia is directing its energies towards Daesh and ISIL, some of those conflicts or potentials for mistakes and escalation are less likely to occur.
I also think this underscores the importance of us making sure that we move this political track forward as quickly as possible. Like President Hollande, our view from the start has been that Russia is welcome to be part of this broad-based coalition that we have set up. There has never been a point in time in which we said that we do not want Russia or other countries that may have differences with us on a whole host of other things to avoid working with us against ISIL.
The challenge has been Russia's focus on propping up Assad rather than focusing on ISIL. I had a conversation with President Putin in Turkey as I indicated to him at the time, that to the extent they make that strategic shift, focus on the Vienna process where they had been constructive to try to bring all the parties together, to try to execute a political transition that all parties would agree to, and refocus attention on going after ISIL, then there is enormous capacity for us to cooperate.
Until that happens, it is very difficult. It is difficult because if their priority is to attack the moderate opposition that might be future members of an inclusive Syrian government, Russia is not going to get the support from us or a range of other members of the coalition. But I do think that there is the possibility for operations. The sooner we agree to this political process, the less likely that you have the kinds of events that took place, apparently, today."
