In his news conference at the G-20 Summit in Turkey, President Obama announced a new agreement Monday to streamline the U.S. process of sharing intelligence with France, in light of Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris carried out by the Islamic State. He also said the U.S. had no "specific" intelligence in advance about ISIS threats toward Paris.
Obama also called on other nations to aid Syria, a nation grappling with civil war and a heavy ISIS presence. Obama affirmed his administration's commitment to taking in up to 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year, something his deputy national security adviser had also confirmed on the Sunday talk shows.
"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," Obama said, arguing that refugees are fleeing terrorists in Syria, rather than working with them.
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Following the Paris attacks, many prominent Republicans have renewed criticism of the president's refugee policy as well as his approach to fighting ISIS, which does not include putting large numbers of troops on the ground. Rather, Obama said to expect an "intensification" in the U.S.'s current strategy in fighting ISIS.
"A strategy has to be one that can be sustained," Obama said. "The strategy that we're pursuing, which focuses on limiting wherever possible the capabilities of [ISIS] on the ground, systematically going after their leadership, their infrastructure, strengthening Syrian and Iraqi and Kurdish forces that are prepared to fight them, that's the strategy we're going to have to pursue."
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