France is committed to “destroying” the so-called Islamic State group after Friday’s deadly attacks, President Francois Hollande has said.
Declaring that “France is at war,” President Hollande on Monday proposed sweeping new laws and more spending on public safety in response to Friday’s terror attacks in Paris — promising to eradicate terrorism, but not at the expense of his country’s freedom.
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Hollande called on the United States and Russia to join a global coalition to destroy Islamic State in the wake of the attacks across Paris. At the same time, ISIS threatened the United States that it could be next.
“I swear to God, as we struck France in its stronghold Paris, we will strike America in its stronghold, Washington,” an ISIS fighter declared in a video released Monday.
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The speech, and ISIS’ latest threat, came as police scoured France and Belgium in a hunt for suspects in Friday’s brutal attacks, which left at least 129 dead and 352 wounded.
In a rare speech to a joint session of parliament, Hollande urged lawmakers to approve a three-month extension of the nation’s state of emergency, new laws that would allow authorities to strip the citizenship from French-born terrorists and provisions making it easier to deport suspected terrorists.
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He also proposed adding 5,000 positions to the country’s national paramilitary police force and said he would not propose cuts in the nation’s defense spending until at least 2019.
He said France would intensify its attacks on ISIS and called for a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the worldwide threat posed by the group.
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“We are not committed to a war of civilizations, because these assassins don’t represent any civilization,” Hollande said. “We are in a war against terrorism, jihadism, which threatens the whole world.”
“Terrorism will not destroy France, because France will destroy it,” Hollande said.
Hollande pledged that French fighter jets would intensify their assaults and said he would meet US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days to urge them to pool their resources.
“We must combine our forces to achieve a result that is already too late in coming,” the president said.
Parliamentarians gave Hollande a standing ovation before spontaneously singing the “Marseillaise” national anthem in a show of political unity following the worst atrocity France has seen since World War Two.
(with agency input)
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