“Our country thus confirms its resolute commitment to fight against the terrorist threat represented by Daesh [Islamic State]. We will strike each time that our national security is at stake,” the French Presidency said in a statement, cited by Reuters.
Earlier this week France announced it may carry out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as an act of self-defense.
“We are part of the coalition in Iraq [against ISIS],” France’s President Francois Hollande said at a news conference. “We started reconnaissance flights [in Syria] to enable us to consider air strikes if they were necessary and they will be necessary in Syria.”
France announced last week it may carry out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as an act of self-defense and had already began reconnaissance missions over Syria.
“We are part of the coalition in Iraq [against ISIS],” French President Francois Hollande said at a news conference. “We started reconnaissance flights to enable us to consider air strikes if they were necessary and they will be necessary in Syria.”
Hollande’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said airstrikes in Syria were justified due to a series of Islamist terror attacks in Europe.
“Due to this threat we decided to start reconnaissance flights to have the option for airstrikes, if that would be necessary. This is self-defense,” the minister told the Belgian media.
Reports about France considering airstrikes against Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria first emerged in early September, when Le Monde cited an anonymous “high-level source.”
Le Monde added that the change of policy could be caused by Europe’s refugee crisis, and the inability to push back Islamic State.
Meantime Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has been urging other countries to set aside “double standards and selfishness,” and to unite to defeat Islamic State.
Russia has long insisted on the creation of an international anti-terrorist coalition, to coordinate the efforts with the Syrian Army in combating the jihadists on the ground.
The US State Department has slammed Russia for the construction of an air base in Syria, but has not criticized France’s announcement that it was preparing to carry out air strikes against ISIS in Syria.
Read full on RT