Iran has evidence of Turkey-ISIL oil trade: Senior official

A senior Iranian official says Tehran is in possession of evidence showing Turkey is involved in illegal oil trade with the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

“Iranian advisers in Syria have taken photos and videos of all the routes [used by] Daesh oil trucks [to move] to Turkey; and these documents can be presented and published,” said Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, on his official website.

Responding to a question on why Turkish officials categorically deny any involvement in oil trade with Daesh, Rezaei said, “If the Turkish government is not aware of Daesh oil sales in its own country, we are ready to give it the formation.”

Turkey stands accused of being involved in illegal oil trade with Daesh. The government in Ankara denies the charge.

Russia, which is carrying out an aerial campaign against Daesh and other terrorist groups within Syria, has on several occasions accused Turkey of buying illegal oil from Daesh. The terrorist group is smuggling oil from the areas which it has overrun in Iraq and Syria and selling it to middlemen in the region. Russian military planes have repeatedly targeted trucks used by Daesh to smuggle oil, including a convoy of some 500 trucks which they destroyed last month.

“At the moment we have received additional information confirming that the oil from the deposits controlled by Daesh militants enters Turkish territory on an industrial scale,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 30.

Reacting to the allegation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will step down if the accusation is proven to be true.

Erdogan has also claimed that Russia was involved in illegal oil trade with Daesh.

Turkey and Russia have been trading accusations ever since the Turkish military downed a Russian fighter jet within Syria on November 24. Turkey says the Russian jet had violated its airspace, an allegation denied by Russia. One of the two pilots of the plane was killed by militants inside Syria – some of them associated with Turkey – as he was parachuting down from his targeted plane.