White House

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the climate summit in Paris and discussed the Syria crisis and the situation in Ukraine, as a White House official stated according to Reuters.

Standing completely still, his eyes fixed on the flowers, flags and flickering candles at his feet, Barack Obama paid his own silent tribute to those who died in Paris's Bataclan concert venue.

Allies of Turkey urged for calm between Ankara and Moscow, after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on the Syrian border on Nov. 24, citing airspace violations despite repeated warnings from the Turkish side. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stated that Turkish information over the downed Russian jet's air space violation was correct, contrary to the Russian claims.

Russia would be prepared to "create a joint staff" to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in which Moscow would work with France, the United States and even Turkey, the Russian ambassador to France said on Nov. 25.
 

Turkish and American presidents, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and Barack Obama, discussed the Turkish Air Forces' downing of a Russian jetfighter during a phone conversation late Nov. 24 and agreed on the need to de-escalate tension between Ankara and Moscow. 

French President Francois Hollande is actively seeking support from both his Euro-Atlantic allies and Russia in the fight against Islamic State (IS) in response to the deadly attacks in Paris on November 13 which claimed the lives of at least 130 people and left hundreds injured.

The U.S. House of Representatives, defying a veto threat by President Barack Obama, overwhelmingly passed Republican-backed legislation on Nov. 19 to suspend Obama's program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year and then intensify the process of screening them.

President Barack Obama slammed US "hysteria" about the security risks posed by Syrian refugees Nov. 17 as Republicans took steps aimed at freezing White House programs to resettle them in the wake of the Paris attacks.

In an unusually fierce rebuke, Obama struck out at his political foes, accusing them of demonizing "widows and orphans."  

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed some 40 countries, including those among the Group of 20 nations, for financing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, Russia Today reported Nov. 16.

France prepared to fall silent at noon on Nov. 16 to mourn victims of the Paris attacks after its warplanes pounded the Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the jihadist group that has claimed responsibility for the slaughter.