Turkey has a right to defend its airspace, Obama says

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama sought Tuesday to both defend a longtime NATO ally and keep the Syrian war from spiraling into an even deeper conflict after neighboring Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that it said violated its airspace. Get_More_Follow_Us

"Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace," Obama said during a news conference with French President Francois Hollande at the White House.

In his first comments since the plane went down, Obama also called on Russia to redirect its military efforts in Syria toward territory held by Islamic State extremists rather than attacking rebel-held positions near the Turkish border in a bid to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"If Russia is directing its energies towards Daash and ISIL, some of those conflicts or potentials for mistakes or escalation are less likely to occur," Obama said, using alternate names for the Islamic State.

urkey's downing of the Russian fighter jet stands to complicate the already-fractured fight against Islamic State. Hollande visited the White House on Tuesday to try to strengthen the multinational coalition taking on the extremist group.

In the wake of the Islamic State-backed attacks this month in Paris, Hollande called for a "grand, unified" fight combining the efforts of the U.S.-led coalition with Russia's own battles against the extremist group. But Obama has been skeptical that the U.S. could align seamlessly with Russia, given Moscow's support for Assad. He has long said that the removal of Assad is crucial to undercutting the ideology that drives fighters to the Islamic State, which controls large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq.

The shootdown of the plane further illustrates the complex challenge before Obama, Hollande and other world leaders trying to destroy the Islamic State. The Kremlin disputes Turkey's assertions that the Russian plane was flying over Turkish airspace near the border with Syria, presumably as part of Moscow's military campaign against Islamic State fighters. Officials in Turkey, a NATO member, say their forces gave numerous warnings before firing. NATO leaders must now look into the dispute at a time when they had hoped to be focused on intensifying the joint efforts against the Islamic State.

Both Obama and Hollande sought to put the onus on Russia to join their coalition, and Obama cast Russia as part of an isolated faction with Assad and Iran that would not succeed in its aims in Syria.

"Our view from the start has been that Russia is welcome to be part of this broad-based coalition that we've set up. ... The challenge has been Russia's focus on propping up Assad rather than focusing on ISIL," Obama said.

The loss of the Russian plane also underscores Obama's concerns about instituting a so-called no-fly zone in northern Syria, which some presidential candidates have called for in criticizing Obama's strategy against Islamic State.

Going into Obama's meeting with Hollande, aides had signaled that the president was not considering a dramatic change of course.

"There is a comprehensive strategy that is being implemented by the United States and the 64 other members of our coalition," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.

Whether Turkey's action will alter Obama's course remains an open question.

Obama has said he would support military cooperation with Moscow if it focuses on defeating the Islamic State rather than on protecting Assad — a message he said he personally delivered to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Turkey during the Group of 20 economic summit. The White House does have an interest in trying to convince the Russians of its view that the only solution to peace in Syria includes a political transition away from Assad.

After leaving Washington, Hollande is scheduled to hold talks in Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday. He then is set to head to Moscow on Thursday to meet with Putin, a session that world leaders had hoped would pull the Russians more fully into the coalition fight against the Islamic State.

In remarks to reporters after his meeting with Hollande, Obama strongly condemned the massacre in Paris, calling it assault on "the very idea that people of different races and religions and backgrounds can live together in peace."

"In short," he said, "this was not only a strike against one of the world's great cities, it was an attack against the world itself."

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