UN Security Council adopts a resolution to halt ISIS’s financial support

News, US February 13, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution which bans individuals and entities from engaging in trade with the ISIS terrorists.

Members of the Council unanimously adopted the resolution on Thursday effectively cutting major cash flows for the ISIS terrorists operating in Syria and Iraq.

Thirty-five countries supported the move, which was initiated by Russia and drafted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. The main theme of action in the resolution is to ban any trade with ISIS including the smuggling of oil as well as the trade in cultural property.

ISIS stormed the Iraqi city of Mosul last year and captured a large collection of historic and cultural artifacts. The group has generated a huge sum of money through selling antiquities looted from the city’s major museums and universities.

ISIS is also earning huge cash through illegal sale of oil in the areas close to the Turkish border. A report by the UN in November 2014 estimated that ISIS’s average income from oil smuggling is around USD 850,000 to USD 1.65 million per day.

The UNSC resolution bans any oil purchase from terrorist groups, including ISIS, and the al-Nusra Front, which is mainly based in Syria. The measure also bans individuals and entities from paying ransom to secure the release of ISIS-held hostages.

According to the resolution, governments must “prevent terrorists from benefiting directly or indirectly from ransom payments or political concessions.” It also urges all 193 UN member states to take “appropriate steps” to prevent any trade of cultural properties, which could largely benefit the terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey is expected to be hit most by the new measure, as numerous reports have emerged showing that the country has coordinated ISIS oil deliveries on its soil. There have been also eye-witness accounts claiming that trucks return from Turkey to Iraq and Syria with refined products.

All governments are obliged to report on what they have done in implementing the guidelines of the resolution within the next 120 days.

The Security Council adopted a resolution in August 2014 to choke off ISIS financing and preventing the flow of arms and cash into Iraq and Syria. However, the new move is expected to set a clear and practical framework for cutting off the financial resources that the terrorists are benefitting from.

MS/HSN/SS