Baghdad will immediately lodge a protest in the UN Security Council if claims that Turkey is involved in oil smuggling with Islamic State terrorists are confirmed, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
“If the Iraqi government receives enough evidence and details, without any hesitation it will file a protest at the UN Security Council and all other relevant international bodies,” ministry’s spokesman Naseer Nuri told Sputnik in a phone interview.
According to him, certain “general information about the smuggling of Iraqi oil by trucks to certain countries, including Turkey” is already available. “This oil is used to fund Daesh”, Nuri said.
“There is evidence, satellite photos and security services’ reports which confirm that Daesh smuggles oil to Turkey,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry has provided evidence of the Turkish involvement into Daesh illegal oil trade at the briefing in Moscow.
Moscow also expects that members of the UN Security Council will quickly adopt a revised Russia-backed draft resolution on curbing financing of the Islamic State (IS or Daesh in the Arab world) militant group, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Wednesday.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia had received additional evidence that oil from fields controlled by ISIL were being transported to Turkey on an industrial scale.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Tuesday that he was ready to resign if it were proven that Ankara was purchasing oil from Daesh.
Various estimates put the income generated by Daesh through oil sales on the black market at about $1 billion a year. Mowaffak Rubaie, an Iraqi parliamentarian and former national security adviser, told Sputnik last week that Daesh, an organization outlawed in Russia and many other states, has managed to sell some $800 million worth of oil on the Turkish black market.