François Hollande: We will ‘destroy’ ISIL

By Nicholas Vinocur

French president calls for meeting of UN Security Council and vows to scale up military campaign.

PARIS — French President François Hollande called Monday for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss a joint response to terrorism, and asked the French Parliament to enact sweeping constitutional changes to better allow authorities to deal with modern terrorist threats.
Three days after assailants carried out the worst-ever attack in Paris, the French leader said he would soon meet with U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hollande also said France would scale up a military campaign against the ISIL terrorist group in order to “not to contain it but to destroy it,” mobilizing the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to support the escalating mission.
“The need to destroy Daesh is a subject which concerns the entire international community,” Hollande told a specially convened joint session of Parliament at Versailles, near Paris. “I have asked the [United Nations] Security Council to gather as soon as possible.”
Rejecting the idea that France and its allies were involved in a clash of civilizations — “those killers don’t have one,” he said — the Socialist leader called the assailants “cowards” who had taken aim at innocent people in an attack that killed at least 129 people.
After a major bombing campaign against ISIL’s stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa, Hollande said a strong coalition was needed to destroy the group, “which is not beyond reach.”
Hollande also confirmed he would ask Parliament to prolong the national state of emergency, which grants security forces special powers to carry out raids against suspected terrorists, for three months beyond its original 12 days. He also said that France would start checking the identity of people entering the country, suspending free travel between European Union nations.
The French president asked for a revision of the French constitution in order to adapt the different regimes of special powers in exceptional situations, which he said aren’t fit to the modern world.
Hollande referred to Article 36 of the constitution, which refers to a “state of siege,” and to Article 16, which allows the president to take over sweeping powers and suspend Parliament in exceptional circumstances
In order to amend the constitution, Hollande must obtain a majority of three-fifths during a special session of Parliament involving both the upper and lower houses. His Socialist party does not, on its own, have the required majority and so will need at least partial support from Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right “Les Républicains” party.
Hollande also announced moves to expand the powers of courts and police to combat terrorism, pledging to hire an additional 5,000 police and “gendarmes” over the next two years.
The speech came a day after France’s defense ministry announced that French jets had carried out a major bombing raid against ISIL positions in the Syrian city of Raqqa that knocked out a command center and a training camp site.