UNSC adopts ‘resolution’ to disrupt Islamic State funds
Goal challenging, say finance ministers
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18, (AP): The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday aimed at disrupting revenue that the Islamic State extremist group gets from oil and antiquities sales, ransom payments and other criminal activities — a goal that finance ministers agree will be challenging.
The Islamic State group, also known as ISIL and DAESH, is already subject to UN sanctions under resolutions dealing with alQaeda. The resolution, sponsored by the United States and Russia, elevates IS to the same level as al-Qaeda, reflecting its growing threat and split from the terror network behind the 9/11 attacks.
It makes “association with ISIL” as well as al-Qaeda a critera for sanctions including a financial freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who chaired the meeting, called ISIL “a challenging financial target” because unlike other “terror groups” like al-Qaeda it gets a relatively small share of its funding from donors abroad.
The Islamic State group controls a large swath of Syria and Iraq, including oil and gas fields, though bombing campaigns by the US-led coalition and ground forces have enabled Iraq to regain some territory.
France’s Finance Minister Michel Sapin told the council that no country is safe from ISIL attacks, the most recent in Paris and California, and that since June 2014 some 1,600 people around the world have been killed in attacks by the extremist group or groups loyal to them.
While foreign ministers from the 15 council nations will be meeting in New York on Friday to discuss a political solution to the Syrian civil war, he said every country has to play a part in stemming the flow of money to extremist groups which are fueling conflicts.
“What sets DAESH apart and makes it so powerful is the fact that it has amassed a sizable war chest by a variety of means including smuggling, extortion and trafficking,” Sapin said. “There is no crime that DAESH will not commit to finance itself.”
Lew said ISIL generates funds from economic activity and the resources in territory under its control and its financing “has evolved from seizing territory and looting bank vaults to leveraging more renewable revenue streams.”
So far, he said, “ISIL has reaped an estimated $500 million from black market oil and millions more from the people it brutalizes and extorts.”
At the same time, Lew said, ISIL has vulnerabilities because it needs large and sustained streams of income to pay fighters, procure weapons, and provide basic services for people living in areas it controls.
He stressed that IS needs access to the international financial system for oil equipment, weapons, communications equipment and other imported items which requires them to move funds — and that provides opportunities for attack.
To cut off oil revenue, Lew said the US-led coalition has been attacking ISIL’s entire oil supply chain from oil fields and refineries to destroying nearly 400 of its tanker trucks in the past month.
He said the United States is also working with its partners to target ISIL’s key “financial facilitators.”