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27Nov15


Syria FM says US should study rumors Erdogan's son is involved in oil trade with IS


US Secretary of State John Kerry should check out reports on the involvement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son in illegal oil trade with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Friday.

"I'd like to mention rumors that Erdogan's son could be involved in illegal oil trade with the IS, although there are no proofs. If I was in Kerry's place, I'd make an attempt to shed light on these reports," Muallem said commenting on Kerry's statements that Damascus was buying oil from terrorists.

Muallem repeated that Kerry had no proofs that Syria bought oil from the IS. "We are still waiting to see them," the minister said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also touched upon the topic.

According to the Russian minister, the United States could not have been unaware of the scale of the Islamic States' oil industry but preferred to spare it.

"The United States-led coalition had begun to fly over Iraq and Syria, without the consent from the Syrian government by the way, more than a year before our aerospace force launched an operation there," he said. "I am sure they saw this but due to some unknown reasons preferred not to interfere. Only after the Russian aerospace force had launched an operation in this area they began to deliver strikes at this criminal industry. And it looks highly improbable that it was a mere coincidence that after that our Turkish neighbors began to behave so, to put it mildly, nervously."

Lavrov said Russia hopes that the United States will support the UN Security Council resolution on sponsors of oil extraction by the Islamic State terrorist group.

"Now we have submitted a particular proposal to task the UN secretary general with summing up in two weeks all the information about who supports this illegal oil industry of the IS," Lavrov said after talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow.

"I hope that US Secretary of State John Kerry will support us and such a resolution will be adopted," Lavrov said.

[Source: Itar Tass, Moscow, 27Nov15]

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small logoThis document has been published on 30Nov15 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.