WASHINGTON: The US on Wednesday turned down the Russian allegations that the Turkish government had been in league with the Islamic State (IS) militants to smuggle oil from Syria.
“We reject outright the premise that the Turkish government is in league with IS to smuggle oil across its borders,” Xinhua quoted Mark Toner, State Department spokesman, as saying.
“And we frankly see no evidence, none, to support such an accusation.”
The Russian defense ministry on Wednesday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of profiting from illegal shipments of oil by IS the terrorist group in Syria.
“The main consumer of oil stolen from legitimate owners in Syria and Iraq is Turkey. Top political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family, are involved in this criminal business,” Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told a press briefing in Moscow, the Russian capital.
“We don’t believe there’s any truth to the fact that their claims that the Turkish government is somehow complicit in a legal oil trade with IS, is just not true,” Toner said.
IANS