There will be no short-term military victory in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, France’s army chief of staff warned on Sunday, as Paris intensifies its strikes on targets in Syria following the deadly attacks in the French capital, reports FRANCE 24.
President François Hollande has called for a grand coalition, including the United States and Russia, to eradicate the IS group in Syria and is due to meet with Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin next week.
The IS group, also known as Daesh, claimed responsibility for the worst violence in France since World War II, in which 130 people were killed in bombings and shootings across Paris last Friday. The group said the assaults were in retaliation for France’s involvement in the US-backed air strikes in Iraq and Syria.
“There will be no military victory against Daesh in the short term,” Pierre de Villiers, chief of staff of armed forces, told French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday.
“In the military, we are used to the long term but people ... want fast results. In Syria and Iraq, we are in the heart of that paradox. Everybody knows that in the end this conflict will be resolved through diplomatic and political channels.”
Hollande will travel to Washington to speak with Obama on Tuesday and then head to Moscow to meet with Putin to discuss how their countries’ militaries might work together.
Russia and Western countries are divided over Syria. Moscow is supporting President Bashar al-Assad while the West says he should leave power to end Syria’s civil war.
But in the wake of the Paris attacks as well as the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt claimed by an affiliate of the IS group, Moscow has also signalled it wants closer cooperation with Western nations in Syria.