NBC’s Engel: Obama’s Rhetoric About Int’l Cooperation Against Islamic State ‘The Opposite’ Of What’s Happening

NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel stated that despite President Obama’s rhetoric about international coordination against ISIS, “we are seeing just the opposite” on Tuesday’s “MSNBC Live.”

Engel said of the rhetoric at President Obama’s press conference, “we’ve heard that many times, that we will win, that the Western civilization will prevail, that democracy will ultimately defeat the extremists, and he called repeatedly for more international cooperation, for unity of interests, that even Russia and the United States should be able to agree that ISIS is a threat to both of them, and that they should coordinate their policy. The problem is, however, we are seeing just the opposite. If you look what happened today where I am, where the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian jet, Turkey says…that Russian jet was violating its airspace, and Russia says that it was merely on a counterterrorism mission. I think it shows that there is no unity of purpose. There is no unity of goals. Because, multiple sources have told us, that Russian plane was operating in Syria, perhaps violating Turkey’s airspace briefly, but it was operating, not to fight ISIS, but to fight a different group, to fight a group that is opposed to the Assad regime. So, you have different parties here, each declaring their own enemies in Syria, and attacking their own terrorists. Turkey was acting to defend this rebel group that operates in Syria. Russia was attacking that rebel group. The US wants both parties to focus on fighting ISIS. Frankly, the policy is all over the place, and this idea that all of the groups should get together, of course, is what should happen. Any analyst in the world will tell you that. But day in, day out, we are seeing just the opposite.”

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