Hajer M'tırı
November 19, 2015•Update: November 20, 2015
PARIS
Russia is sincere in wanting to cooperate in the fight against Daesh in Syria, said the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Thursday.
Fabius told a French radio station that when Russian President Vladimir Putin "proposed working together it was at the beginning of September. We said, the president and myself, that it was a good idea as long as Russia concentrated its efforts on Daesh and not on the moderate forces."
"It seems that there has now been a change in that sense. We are going to meet with President Putin next Thursday because we need to harness all our efforts in the fight against Daesh,"Fabius told France Inter.
"There is an opening, so to speak, with the Russians. We think they [Russians] are sincere and we must bring together all our forces,“ he added.
He described the "30,000" members of Daesh as "monsters".
"We know that the battle will be long, but the French government is absolutely determined," Fabuis said.
Following the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 129 people, French President Francois Hollande will travel to Washington later this month to meet U.S. President Barack Obama before traveling to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The leaders will discuss the fight against Daesh and the Syrian conflict in the Nov. 24 and 26 meetings.
Separately, French military spokesman, Colonel Gilles Jaron, said in a press conference on Thursday that French airstrikes has destroyed 35 Daesh targets in Syria since last week’s attack, as French planes dropped 60 bombs on six sites, including Daesh command centers or training sites.
"The strikes were aimed at weakening and disorganizing Daesh," Jaron said.
He added the Charles de Gaulle nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which left on Wednesday for the eastern Mediterranean, will triple France’s air capacity in the region.
