US & Russia to present joint anti-terror finance UNSC resolution

The United States and Russia will soon be ready to present a draft UN Security Council resolution aimed at crippling the sources of Islamic State’s income, as well as other terror groups. The new text will also finally single ISIS out as a separate terror entity.

“We are working together with the US delegation on a joint project,” Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told reporters. “This is a grand resolution to fight terrorism. We are quite confident that we will achieve this, that this resolution would be ready by December 18.”

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The new resolution against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) would be based on a similar resolution passed back in 1999 to target the financing of Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.

The new text, according to Churkin, will “expand the sanctions regime,” finally “singling out the Islamic State as a separate anti-terrorist structure.”

But most importantly, the new resolution will contain a clause that would enforce the stricter implementation of Resolution 2199, which “forbids illegal oil trade with terrorist groups, [and] objects of cultural value.”

The new document is a follow-up to Russian-sponsored Resolution 2199, which was adopted by the UN on February 12 to put a stop to illicit oil deals with terrorist groups, using the UN Security Council’s sanctions toolkit.

The latest analysis of ISIS profits conducted by IHS Conflict Monitor revealed that Islamic State functions under a model that enables the group to finance its activities using the “inner” resources of the territories under its control.

Illegal oil trade on behalf of jihadists contributes to about 43 percent of revenues while taxation from occupied lands brings in as much as 50 percent of all income.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Turkey of profiting from lucrative trade deals with IS in neighboring Syria. He put forward the allegation after Turkey downed a Russian bomber which Ankara accused of having briefly crossed into its airspace in late November.