People look at the Eiffel Tower illuminated in the French colors in honor of the victims of the attacks on Friday in Paris, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. France is urging its European partners to move swiftly to boost intelligence sharing, fight arms trafficking and terror financing, and strengthen border security in the wake of the Paris attacks. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
ADDRESSING lawmakers after France observed a minute of silence honoring those killed and wounded, French President Francois Hollande said the victims came from at least 19 nations, and the international community, led by the United States and Russia, must overcome their deep-seated divisions over Syria to destroy the Islamic State group on its home turf.
“Friday’s acts of war were decided and planned in Syria. They were organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French complicity with one specific goal: to sow fear and to divide us,” Hollande told Parliament in a rare joint session convened at the Palace of Versailles.
“Syria has become the biggest factory of terrorism the world has ever known and the international community is still too divided and too incoherent,” he added.
As Hollande spoke, thousands gathered around candlelit memorials at the Place de la Republique square and beneath the Eiffel Tower, which like many top attractions in one of the world’s most-visited cities reopened for business on Monday in a defiant spirit.
The Eiffel Tower was bathed in red, white and blue floodlights of the French tricolor, with the city’s centuries-old slogan—“Tossed but not sunk,” suggesting an unsinkable city braving stormy seas—projected in white lights near its base.
French and other Western intelligence agencies face an urgent challenge of tracking down the surviving members of the three IS units who inflicted the unprecedented bloodshed in France and, perhaps more importantly, to target their distant commanders in Syria. AP