Comment by the Information and Press Department on the adoption by the UN Security Council of the resolution targeting illegal trade in oil and oil products by terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq
On February 12, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2199 on curbing the revenues that terrorist groups are getting from trade in oil and oil products in Syria and Iraq.
The draft resolution was initiated by the Russian Federation. It was co-authored by over 50 states – almost all members of the UN Security Council, including the five permanent ones, as well as many influential countries representing different parts of the world. The resolution has become an integral part of the efforts by the UN Security Council, with our active involvement, to consolidate the international legal framework for countering the terrorist threat from ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra.
The resolution is targeted at using the UN Security Council’s instruments of sanctions to curb oil deals with the afore-mentioned terrorist structures. Its urgency is prompted by the considerable revenues that the terrorists are receiving from trade in hydrocarbons from seized deposits in Syria and Iraq.
The resolution bans any trade in oil and oil products with ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra. Consequently, such actions will be viewed as financial aid to terrorists and represent the grounds for imposing targeted sanctions of the UN Security Council against individuals and companies involved in these criminal activities.
Sanctions provide for a ban on visits and freezing of assets. All participating states will be obliged to share the identities of those who are assisting terrorists.
The resolution includes provisions aimed at curbing other sources of terrorist incomes, including the smuggling of precious metals, antiquities and cultural values from Iraq and Syria.
We hope that all members of the international community will strictly abide by the provisions of the adopted resolution, which has become a major contribution to the consolidation of the truly collective efforts to counter the terrorist threat and enhance the central, coordinating role of the UN Security Council.
Such international cooperation should be carried out on the basis of international legal standards and without politicisation, avoiding the practice of double standards and refraining from labeling terrorists as either “good” or “bad.”
February 12, 2015
