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Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Wednesday voiced support for President Obama's decision to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and sought to downplay past differences with the president over strategy in the region.

Clinton made the comments during a discussion moderated by CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York.

"The situation now is demanding a response, and we are seeing a very robust response," Clinton said, according to CNN. "It is something that I think the president is right to bring the world attention to."

As secretary of state, Clinton encouraged Obama to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels, but he rejected her advice."No one likes to lose a debate, including me. But this was the President's call and I respected his deliberations and decision," Clinton wrote in her book, "Hard Choices."

With the threat from the Islamic State rising in Syria and across the border in Iraq, Obama has embraceda strategy of training and equipping moderate rebels, in addition to airstrikes.

In her remarks Wednesday, Clinton seemed to brush aside past policy disagreements with Obama.

"Whatever the debates might have been before, this is a threat to the region and beyond," she said, CNN reported. "I can't sit here today and tell you that if we had done what I had recommended we would be in a very different position. I just can't. You can't go and prove a negative."

As Clinton weighs a run for president in 2016, any comments on national security and foreign policy have been in the spotlight. She received widespread attention when she told the Atlantic in a summer interview that "Great nations need organizing principles -- and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle." At the time, the remark was seen as a dig at Obama, since that phrase had reportedly been used inside the White House as shorthand for the president's foreign policy doctrine.

Sean Sullivan has covered national politics for The Washington Post since 2012.

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Hillary Clinton supports Obama on Syria airstrikes