France's president heads to Moscow on Thursday to try to win concessions from Russia's Vladimir Putin to fight Islamic State and press on with a political solution in Syria, but diplomats warn that major differences will make a breakthrough difficult, reports Reuters.
President François Hollande will meet Putin as part of a diplomatic push for improved international cooperation against Islamic State following attacks by the militant group that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.
But having agreed with U.S President Barack Obama on Tuesday to scale up military operations against the group, French officials are playing down the prospect of achieving Hollande's initial calls for a grand coalition against IS that would include Russia and the United States.
The downing of a Russian jet by NATO ally Turkey on Tuesday followed by Moscow's renewed bombardment of Western-backed Syrian rebels appears to have put an end to such talk, leaving at best an effort to better coordinate action.
"We reached the conclusion that we had to work with Putin," said a senior French diplomat. "We have to try and get him on board with some of the conditions that we set out previously."
France has previously said it could only work closely with Russia if Moscow pressured Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop barrel-bombing civilians, limited its strikes to Islamic State and similar hardcore groups and worked on a political transition in Syria without Assad at the end.
"If we can make him move on one of those things all the better," the official said.
French officials, who say Hollande has a good working relationship with Putin, have also said they are concerned that Russia makes little effort to avoid collateral damage with its strikes in Syria, making coordination even more difficult.
Read more of this report from Reuters.
See Mediapart's coverage of France's policy U-turn over Syria here.