The Islamic State has recently sold its grain stocks to the Assad regime, filling the terrorist group’s coffers with much needed funds, a report revealed on Tuesday.
Deir Ezzor 24 News Network said that ISIS has sold the grain stocks in the Ashra silos located near Hasaka-Deir Ezzor road to an intermediary, Hossam Qatirji, who took on the transportation of the gain loads to regime-held areas.
The Syrian Coalition said that the deal provides further evidence on the continued business dealings between the Assad regime and the extremist group in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions calling for drying up the sources of funding for terrorist groups.
Member of the Syrian Coalition political committee Yasser Farhan said that the new revelation should prompt the UN Security Council to take further measures to enforce its resolutions to prosecute those who finance terror groups.
Qatirji, who is a member of the Assad regime’s so-called People’s Assembly, was also involved in many sale deals of crude oil extracted by ISIS from Deir Ezzor oil fields to the Assad regime. He is also involved in business dealings with the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
In April 2016, documents recovered from a US and British raid targeting a key ISIS commander revealed that the Assad regime cut deals with the extremist group to earn more than $40 million a month from the sale of oil.
Thousands of spreadsheets and account books kept by the group’s oil boss Abu Sayyaf revealed how the two sides forged a mutually beneficial arrangement despite the regime’s repeated pronouncements that it is fighting the extremist group.
Several reports indicated that the Assad regime had been purchasing oil from ISIS, but the documents, seen by the Wall Street Journal, showed the scale of the collusion.
In January 2017, the Wall Street Journal revealed that ISIS had shored up its oil and gas sales to the Assad regime. The sales represent the militant group’s largest source of revenue, overtaking funds made by imposing tolls and tax levies on those residing in its claimed territory. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
