A large oil smuggling operation from ISIS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq into Turkey has become a top-priority target in order to cripple the group, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Both Putin and French President Francois Hollande said the source of ISIS' financing should be taken down as the first priority.
“Vehicles, carrying oil, lined up in a chain going beyond the horizon,” said Putin in Moscow. “Day and night they are going to Turkey. Trucks always go there loaded, and back from there – empty,” he said, according to state-funded RT.
“We are talking about a commercial-scale supply of oil from the occupied Syrian territories seized by terrorists. It is from these areas [that oil comes from], and not with any others. And we can see it from the air, where these vehicles are going,” Putin said, adding there’s “no doubt” oil from “terrorist-controlled” areas in Syria is going to Turkey.
“We assume that the top political leadership of Turkey might not know anything about this [illegal oil trade]. Hard to believe, but it is theoretically possible,” Putin noted. He added that Ankara should still try and stop the illegal smuggling of oil.
