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Thursday 26 Nov 2015 - 12:27 Makkah mean time-14-2-1437
Washington, (IINA) - The Obama administration said on Wednesday that the Syrian Regime is purchasing oil from ISIS. The administration also blacklisted a Syrian-Russian businessman suspected of facilitating those transactions, Wall Street Journal reported.
The U.S. Treasury Department also penalized Russian and Cypriot businessmen and companies suspected of helping the Syrian central bank evade international sanctions through a web of companies based in Russia, Cyprus and Belize.
Among those blacklisted is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a former president of the autonomous Russian Republic of Kalmykia. Ilyumzhinov is a long-serving chairman of the World Chess Federation, according to the Treasury Department.
The Treasury’s actions bar US nationals from doing business with the designated entities and freeze any assets they hold in the US financial system.
US officials have long voiced concerns that the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad was strengthening ISIS’s finances by purchasing oil produced by the militant group on territory that used to be controlled by Damascus. However, Wednesday’s statements are the most explicit and direct accusations by the US, and it is also the first time sanctions have been imposed on the regime’s oil trade.
“The United States will continue targeting the finances of those enabling Assad to continue inflicting violence on the Syrian people”, said the Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Adam Szubin.
AG/IINA
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