Daesh selling oil to Damascus, Ankara: US Treasury
Following reports that NATO ally Turkey is engaged in millions of dollars of oil trade with Daesh (ISIL), the United States has now accused the Syrian government of buying oil from the terrorist group.
Speaking at Chatham House in London on Thursday, senior US Treasury official Adam Szubin said that Daesh is earning some $40 million a month from oil trade, Reuters reported.
Szubin, the acting undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence with the Treasury, said "ISIL is selling a great deal of oil” to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
"The two are…engaged in millions and millions of dollars of trade," said Szubin, without citing any evidence to support his claims.
"The volumes we are talking about and the amounts of money we are talking about are very sizable," he added.
The US official said the "far greater amount" of ISIL oil ends up under the Syrian government’s control while "some is coming across the border into Turkey.”
Szubin went on to say that Daesh has made more than $500 million from black market oil sales.
However, according to Iraqi lawmaker Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Takfiri terrorists have made more than $800 million in black market oil sales in Turkey over the last eight months.
“This is Iraqi oil and Syrian oil, carried by trucks from Iraq, from Syria through the borders to Turkey and sold ... [at] less than 50 percent of the international oil price,” Rubaie said on November 29.
He further noted that the oil is either refined and used in Turkey or sold on the international market.
Accusations over Turkey’s role in Daesh oil smuggling were also raised by Russia. On November 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he received additional information confirming that Daesh had been conducting its oil sales via Turkey.
Turkey has rejected oil trade with Daesh with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying that he will step down if the accusation is proven to be true.
Russian military planes, which are used for an aerial campaign against Daesh and other militant groups, have repeatedly targeted trucks used by Daesh to smuggle oil.
The Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian fighter jet in Syria near the border with Turkey on November 24 that was reportedly targeting ISIL trucks transporting oil to Turkey.
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