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President Obama held an end-of-the-year news conference at the White House on Friday ahead of his family’s annual vacation in Hawaii.
During his remarks, the President vowed to defeat ISIS, but said that in order to “stamp them out thoroughly,” the U.S. and its allies need to bring stability to the Middle East.
“We're going to defeat ISIS,” said Obama, “and we're going to do so by systemically squeezing them, cutting off their supply lines, cutting off their financing, taking out their leadership, taking out their forces, taking out their infrastructure. We're going to do so in partnership with forces on the ground that sometimes are spotty, sometimes need capacity building, need our assistance, need our training, but we're seeing steady progress in many of these areas. And so they're going to be on the run.”
“Now, in order for us to stamp them out thoroughly, we have to eliminate lawless areas in which they cannot still roam," he went on. "There are still operatives who are interested in carrying out terrorist attacks because they still operate in areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan or more prominently right now in Yemen that are hard to reach."
"Our long-term goal has to be able to stabilize these areas so that they don't have any safe haven, and in order for us to do that in Syria, there has to be an end to the civil war," said Obama. "There has to be an actual government that has a police capacity and a structure in these areas that currently aren't governed.”
The President added that a stable Syria is not achievable so long as president Bashar al-Assad remains in power.
Check out video of his full remarks below.