Turkey is buying cheap oil from ISIL terrorists: commentator
Press TV has conducted an interview with Matar Matar, political commentator from New York, about the issue of ISIL Takfiri terrorists.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: How much has infighting amongst insurgents groups in Syria been detrimental to the terrorist groups themselves?
Matar: Since September the area in eastern Syria surrounding Dair al Zawr and Raqqa has become an attacking point for the jihadists to fight for oil fields and these oil fields are becoming the main sources for funds for their activities and to fund their missions.
Recently the big advance that happened in Mosul and before last week ten days ago, ISIL or the new Islamic caliphate captured the biggest oil field in Mosul, which has the power productivity of about 30,000 barrels per day.
There are issues that they started selling these barrels, they started selling them since the beginning to Turkey and some reports mentioned that Turkish businessmen are selling these barrels of oil to Turkey as well for as cheap as 20 dollars per barrel.
So in summation the whole month of selling for about a month is about 50 million dollars. So here is the big question – of course they need funds and they need arms – so the big question is if you wanted to counter terrorism we should counter the arming and funding. The funding is coming from oil selling so we have to follow the Turkish government to whom they are selling this oil.
Some reports from the Turkish opposition mention that about one thousand Turkish nationalists are helping the Jihadists in their selling.
And also if we go back to the beginning of the crisis in Syria when the European Union sanctioned the Syrian government with the embargo on the Syrian oil... now where are those European countries to counter terrorism and make pressure on the Turkish government for further investigation and further measurements to stop selling this oil because these funds are going to the hands of terrorists. They might attack Turkey in the future or even Europe.
So this area is becoming a very strategic point between the ISIL and the other Islamic groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra. Recently they fled the area and ISIL captured them
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PressTV - Turkey is buying cheap oil from ISIL terrorists: commentator