(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Monday evening for 90 minutes with US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss a variety of issues, topped by the ongoing struggle against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
At the same time, President Francois Hollande and President Barack Obama spoke on the phone about the same subject and confirming their willingness to continue action against ISIL, which has captured swathes of land in Syria and Iraq and is continuing to challenge the Iraqi and Kurdish forces in both countries.
Diplomats, who requested anonymity, said that Kerry had thanked France for the role it took in carrying out air strikes soon after the US began hitting ISIL positions in northern Iraq. France was the first country to join the US in such strikes but Paris has said it will not attack ISIL in Syria as it does not want to risk strengthening the position of the Syrian regime and President Bashar Al-Assad.
Kerry also thanked France for supporting and indeed increasing its lethal and non-lethal military support for the moderate Syrian opposition, which is fighting both ISIL and Al-Assad regime.
The sources said that the two men also discuss the forthcoming meetings that begin this week in Vienna with Iran over that country's controversial nuclear programme. The P5+1 meetings include both the US and France, as well as Russia, China, Britain and Germany, and Iran on the other side.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected in Paris Tuesday for talks with Kerry and later meetings with Fabius to discuss Iran but also to discuss Ukraine and the volatile situation there, plus the latest developments with reports of a pull-back by Russian troops.
Kerry and Fabius also discussed the agreement reached on Gaza in Cairo on Sunday and hopes that there can be progress on the peace issue as a result of the positive nature of Sunday's meeting, which got pledges of USD 5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza which was laminated by Israel during the last 50 day way. Both men attended the donor conference for Gaza and reviewed the outcome in Paris Monday night.
The two leading diplomats also reviewed the ongoing crisis in Libya and the tensions in Lebanon during their talks.
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