Russia needs to cooperate against IS, Assad, Hollande says

Hollande also ticks off a number of places Islamic State has attacked around the world, saying the terror group will not be able to cow the world.

He says the group will be destroyed “wherever they are,” and their financing destroyed and the land they control wrested back.

Hollande says the US and France are upping intelligence on where to strike, and calls on Turkey to close its border with Syria to stop fighters from leaving for Europe.

He says Assad needs to step down, and says he can’t imagine Syrian people wanting him to stay in power.

He defends the continue intake of refugees, saying rejecting them would mean rejecting “who we are.” Still he calls for refugees to stay in Turkey.

He says he will tell Putin France can only work with Russia if they concentrate their strikes against IS and commits to seeing Assad go.

“We do not want to exclude anyone, but we want to make sure that this political solution can eradicate terrorism.”