Obama pays silent tribute to victims of Paris attacks

President Obama pays his respects with French President Francois Hollande at a memorial outside the Bataclan theater in Paris on Nov. 30.

Nov. 29, 2015 5:54 PM PT

Reporting from Paris —

Offering a single white rose and a silent prayer, President Obama paid his respects to the massacre victims at Paris’ Bataclan theater here Monday, moments after arriving in France to attend a major international climate summit.

Amid a heavy security presence in the heart of the French capital, Obama was joined by French President Francois Hollande and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, for the unannounced visit just after midnight.

The three walked to a makeshift memorial in front of the concert hall. Each placed a rose amid the flags, notes, flowers and candles at the location where dozens of people were slain in one of a series of coordinated attacks Nov. 13 that ultimately claimed 130 lives.

Obama stood silently for about a minute, his eyes closed, before offering a reverent nod and walking away with his arms around Hollande and Hidalgo.

With 150 world leaders set to attend the United Nations’ COP 21 summit here Monday, French authorities have been taking multiple dignitaries to the site. A senior French government advisor said preparations for Obama’s visit had been in the works for days.

Last week, Hollande visited the White House to discuss new military coordination in the fight against Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. During their U.S. meeting, Obama noted that the terrorists had directed their violence not against the French government or military, but “on the very spirit of France and, by extension, on all liberal democracies.”

“This was an attack on our free and open societies,” he said. “This was an attack on the very idea that people of different races and religions and backgrounds can live together in peace.”

Paris has mobilized an unprecedented security presence for the summit, including the main conference venue of Le Bourget on the northern edge of the city. Hollande and other government ministers were adamant that the conference should go ahead despite the attacks, saying that any delay in talks that have been years in the making would be a surrender to terrorism.

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Michael A. Memoli

Michael A. Memoli worked in the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau from 2010-17, where he covered the White House, the 2016 presidential campaign, and national politics based in D.C. (plus a dozen or so swing states in presidential election years). A New Jersey native, he graduated from Loyola University in Maryland.

Alexandra Zavis

Alexandra Zavis is a former writer and editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign Desk who has reported from more than 40 countries. She spent a decade with the Associated Press, covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other war-torn places. After joining The Times in 2006, she has served as a Baghdad correspondent and as a California reporter covering poverty and veterans issues. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award for distinguished reporting on foreign affairs and was part of teams of reporters awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence and APME’s International Perspective Award. She is a graduate of Oxford University and City University in London.

Obama pays silent tribute to victims of Paris attacks

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