Daesh (ISIS) smuggles most of its oil through Turkey, and the flow hasn’t stopped, according to Russia’s permanent envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin.
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation
Originally appeared at Sputniknews
Speaking at the UN Security Council Meeting on Countering the Financing of Terrorism, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said that Daesh terrorists carry out the majority of the group’s oil smuggling through Turkish territory, RIA Novosti reported.
According to Churkin, “the sale of hydrocarbons from the territories controlled by Daesh shows no signs of abating.”
“The largest volume of oil products is sold via Turkey, with thousands of tanker trucks going through border crossings in Karkamıs, Akcakale, Dzhilvegezyu and Ondzhupynarm,” Churkin said.
Unobstructed passage of the Syrian-Turkish border by heavy trucks near Reyhanli
He also said that the smuggled oil is then delivered to a refinery of the Turkish company Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS (Tupras) in the province of Batman.
“But the largest flow of hydrocarbons is shipped via Turkish ports in the Mediterranean, mainly through the port of Ceyhan,” Churkin said, adding that oil smuggling brings Daesh militants at least 1.5 million dollars per day.
Concentration of vehicles near Dortyol in Turkey. Maximum available quality. (Still frames of the Russian Defense Ministry.)
In this vein, Churkin stressed that it was necessary to counter Daesh with “a decisive and coordinated response.”
“We can only eliminate this absolute evil by acting in concert and without double standards, including in the cause of the complete elimination of terrorists’ funding channels,” Churkin said.
On Thursday evening, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution obliging all countries to grapple with the sources of financing of terrorism.
In particular, the resolution called upon countries to criminalize financial transactions related to terrorism, including all transactions with individual terrorists and terrorist groups.
The document also called for the provision of guidance on stopping Daesh’s oil smuggling, extortion, taxation, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, foreign donations, trade in antiquities, and human trafficking.
