Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
French President Francois Hollande has proposed a three-month extension of a state of emergency as French and Belgian police swooped on suspected terrorist addresses seizing weapons and making around a 100 house arrests.
In a stirring address to an emergency joint sitting of the French Parliament, Mr Hollande defiantly stated that France would never be defeated nor its face or soul changed by fear.
Among the sweeping changes being proposed is a bill to extend the state of emergency from the 12 legislated days approved on Friday evening to three months. It will be introduced to Parliament on Wednesday for a vote by the end of week.
He has also proposed a change to the constitution to update 'state of war' and 'state of emergency' provisions in the light of new terrorism threats.
Declaring his country was at war, he also floated changes to citizenship rules allowing the state to more rapidly expel people regarded as a security threat. That appeared to reflect controversial similar powers legislated in Australia.
The speech came as France reiterated its intention to visit harsh and "merciless" military retribution against Islamic State unleashing a fusillade of bombs on its unofficial capital in Syria of Raqqa. It sent an extra 10 warplanes to undertake the raids with the promise of more to come.
It also coincided with a call by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott for Australia, currently the second largest military contributor in Iraq/Syria, to consider upping its role with boots on the ground. He said IS could not be contained but must be destroyed.
"Because as long as it exists, the killings will continue," he wrote in the opinion pages of The Australian newspaper on Tuesday.
He said while nobody wanted to rush into a "witches' brew of danger and complexity" neither was it feasible to deal lightly with regimes that act as recruiting agents for terrorism.
"Especially in the wake of Paris and Sinai, it's becoming clearer that an understandable reluctance to accept military casualties abroad could easily lead to more civilian casualties at home," he wrote.
The murderous simultaneous attacks in France last Friday night have shocked the French republic and prompted the two key external powers in the Syrian conflict - the US and Russia - to resume dialogue and proceed towards a solution in Syria where some believe a proxy war is being fought.
The two countries are now moving towards a settlement but in the immediate term, a step up in the military campaign against IS is likely.
Speaking in Turkey, US President Barack Obama adopted a noticeably calmer tone than his more hawkish critics would like, explaining that the giant American military machine could do more in the fight against IS and could even take and hold territory, but only for as long as it occupied that territory itself.
Mr Obama is under pressure from within his country and beyond to get serious about defeating IS by committing more resources including boots on the ground and by loosening highly restrictive and legalistic rules of engagement that mean it can take a long time to secure the go-ahead to release bombs even after targets are identified.
Progress on a political solution in Syria has so far proved impossible but the combination of the Paris attacks and the burgeoning refugee crisis unfolding in Europe has finally brought recognition that the crisis must be resolved.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the extension has not yet been approved.
