AFP, PARIS: Germany pledged Wednesday to stand beside France in its fight against Islamic State jihadists, as French President Francois Hollande prepared to visit Moscow as part of his whirlwind diplomatic tour in the wake of the Paris attacks. Hollande met his closest EU partner during a week of intense but so far faltering efforts to build a coalition to crush IS in Iraq and Syria—a campaign that has been further complicated by a diplomatic spat between Russia and Turkey.
The French president said he hoped Germany “can do even more in the fight against Daesh in Syria and Iraq”, using another term for IS, which claimed responsibility for the killings in Paris. Merkel in response pledged to act “swiftly” to see how Germany could take on “additional responsibilities” to help in the fight against terrorism. “We will be stronger than the terror,” she said, pledging to stand “at France’s side”. Earlier, the French and German leaders each laid a pink rose among the tributes of flowers and candles in Place de la Republique, the Paris square that has become a rallying point since the bloodshed. France has invoked a clause requiring EU member states to provide military assistance after the November 13 attacks, in which Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in the French capital.