UNSC must probe ISIL oil buyers: Russian FM
June 2, 2015, 12:34 pm

ISIL, an alternate acronym of the group Islamic State, has seized vast swaths of territory in northern Iraq since June 2014 and announced the establishment of a caliphate in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq [Xinhua]

“I believe we need to take another step in Security Council and find a mechanism to find out who is buying this oil,” Lavrov told Bloomberg in an interview.

ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) has consolidated its grip on oil supplies in Iraq with the radical militant group earning millions of dollars a week from its Iraqi oil operations.

The Islamic State also controls around 80 per cent of Syria’s oil and natural gas now, the Syrian opposition claimed this week.

A United Nations report in November last year estimated that the Islamic State earns oil revenues of $846,000 to $1,645,000 a day. The group’s assets are used to finance arms purchase and to recruit mercenaries from around the world.

“We want to cut the financial links of ISIL… We need to cut off any oil purchases on the territory controlled by the terrorists,” the Russian Foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Even as the US and its allies have staged multiple air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq since last year, Russia has insisted that major impact in the fight against the group would come from straining financial support for the group.

Moscow has alleged that US-led coalition against ISIL coalition does not coordinate its operations with the Syrian government.

“We [Russia] have been contributing to the fight against this group [ISIL] long before this [US-led] coalition has been created,” the Russian Foreign Minister said in the interview on Tuesday.

Earlier last year, a United Nations panel urged the Security Council to impose a global moratorium on the sale of antiquities from Iraq and Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had also, in October, raised questions about the financing of ISIL.

“Where does all this come from? How did the notorious ISIL manage to become such a powerful group, essentially a real armed force?” asked Putin.

“The terrorists are getting money from selling oil too. Oil is produced in territory controlled by the terrorists, who sell it at dumping prices, produce it and transport it. But someone buys this oil, resells it, and makes a profit from it, not thinking about the fact that they are thus financing terrorists who could come sooner or later to their own soil and sow destruction in their own countries,” said the Russian President.

ISIL, an alternate acronym of the group Islamic State, has seized vast swaths of territory in northern Iraq since June 2014 and announced the establishment of a caliphate in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq.

TBP