Russia hopes for UN Security Council resolution to counteract IS, Jabhat an-Nusra oil deals
MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) - Moscow is hoping that the United Nations Security Council (UN SC) will swiftly pass Russia's draft resolution banning the financing of terrorist organizations through the purchase of oil or otherwise, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich has said.
"Russia has submitted the draft with the UN SC in furtherance of the previous SC resolution on the subject of fighting terrorist organizations. As far as I am informed, it focuses mainly on two biggest extremist organizations involved in illegal oil trade and seizing oil and gas fields in Iraq and Syria - the Islamic State and Jabhat an-Nusra," Lukashevich said at a briefing in Moscow on Thursday.
Hopefully, the Russian draft resolution will pass swiftly, in which case it "will become an additional efficient tool of counteracting oil deals involving the IS and Jabhat an-Nusra," he said.
"Such illegal oil trade largely contributes to the financial strength of these terrorist organizations and financial nourishment for terrorism in the region," the Russian diplomat said.
The draft resolution is currently "being given a finishing touch" in the SC, he said. "As far as I know, voting is quite likely to be in the coming days," he said.
