Obama, G-20 Condemn 'Heinous' Paris Attacks

 

 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and U.S. President Barack Obama chat during a session of the G-20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey, Nov. 15, 2015..

Leaders gathered in Turkey for a summit of industrial and emerging-market nations are preparing to lay out a coordinated response to the multiple terrorist assaults on Paris sites, which U.S. President Barack Obama has described as an "attack on the civilized world."
The two-day Group of 20 meeting was meant to focus on trade, energy and climate change, but Friday’s Paris attacks have overshadowed all topics.
The leaders condemned "the heinous terrorist attacks in Paris," calling them "an unacceptable affront to all humanity." In a draft statement, they said they "reaffirm our solidarity and resolve in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and wherever it occurs."
As leaders met for the second and final day at the Mediterranean resort town of Antalya, French warplanes bombed Islamic State strongholds in Syria, the Associated Press reported Monday. The militant extremist group has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
Leaders in Turkey observed a minute of silence Monday morning to honor victims of the attacks, the AP reported.
Strategy sessions
At the summit, sideline meetings have been addressing how to deal  with Syria – where President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and opposition forces have battled for more than four years – and the Islamic State group.
Obama on Monday was set to huddle with European leaders: British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minster Matteo Renzi and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. French President Francois Hollande had cancelled his trip to the meeting, remaining in Paris to deal with the crisis.
The U.S. president, who also met Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, condemned the coordinated attacks in the French capital and last month’s twin bombings at a leftist rally in Ankara that killed well over 100 people. The IS extremists claimed responsibility for those attacks, too.
"The killing of innocent people, based on a twisted ideology, is an attack not just on France, not just on Turkey, but it's an attack on the civilized world," Obama said Sunday.
Fight against IS
Obama has pledged solidarity with France, vowing to help it in “hunting down the perpetrators” of the Paris attacks pledged.
The U.S. president said he plans to "redouble" efforts to eliminate the Islamic State group, known in Arabic as Daesh.
“We will redouble our efforts working with other members of the coalition to bring about a peaceful transition in Syria and to eliminate Daesh as a force that can create so much pain and suffering for people in Paris and Ankara and other parts of the globe," Obama said.
Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attacks both in Paris and Ankara.

 

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin confer before a G-20 Summit session in Antalya, Turkey, Nov. 16, 2015.

Obama, Putin meet
On Sunday, Obama had a "constructive discussion" with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Syria, according to a White House official. 
"The conversation lasted approximately 35 minutes and centered around ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria, an imperative made all the more urgent by the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris," the official said.
A meeting of foreign ministers in Vienna ahead of the G-20 appeared to set the stage for new cooperation despite differences. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a joint news conference Saturday, said the U.N. has agreed to bring Syrian government and the opposition together at a meeting and a cease-fire is expected within six months.
The coordinated attacks in Paris show that "it doesn’t matter if you’re for Assad or against him," said Lavrov. "ISIS is your enemy."
Turkey's role
One of Obama’s first meetings in Antalya was with Erdogan, a key partner in the fight against the Islamic State terrorists. For months, Turkish security have been stepping up their raids against what officials say are Islamic State cells, mainly in the southeast of Turkey near the country’s borders with Syria and Iraq.
The Turkish government was at first reluctant to participate in U.S.-led efforts against the militants, but has since allowed the U.S. to launch attacks from bases in Turkey and has carried out bombing campaigns of its own.
The G-20 summit took place amid high security, with 12,000 Turkish soldiers and police deployed around the resort as leaders and top officials of the G-20 and other nations arrived, along with 3,000 journalists.
Turkish military officials said they had put in place a 24-hour air defense system over the area during the two-day meeting.