BREAKING NEWS

Hollande, Putin speak of united front in fight against ISIS

French President Francois Hollande and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke on Thursday of a united front in their fight against Islamic State.
However the two leaders differed over the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Hollande saying France saw no place for him in Syria's future. Putin said Assad's fate should be decided by the Syrian people.
"I think that the fate of the President of Syria should lie entirely in the hands of the Syrian people," he said.
When it came to military operations in Syria though, the two leaders agreed to closer cooperation.
"What we agreed, and this is important, is to strike only terrorists and Daesh (Islamic State) and to not strike forces that are fighting terrorism. We will exchange information about whom to hit and whom not to hit," Hollande told a joint news conference with Putin.
Speaking after a working dinner in the Kremlin with Putin, Hollande said they had agreed to target only Islamic State and similar jihadi groups in Syria. The West has accused Moscow of targeting mostly Western-backed rebel groups fighting Assad.