During a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Abadi stressed the importance of stopping oil smuggling from terrorist-controlled parts of Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi prime minister also called for international support to help his country fight ISIS.

“Turkey is a country neighboring Iraq, and a country that should be friendly with Iraq, they promised us that they would stop the entry of terrorists, however we need more action in order to stop the pumping of terrorists from Turkey into Syria and into Iraq. Also the stopping of the smuggling of petrol from Syria and Iraq and the financing of Daesh [the Arabic name for ISIS] in a general sense through this illegal trade,” Abadi said.

The Iraqi PM said that the Turkish side was aware of the issue which they promised to resolve under UN Security Council resolution adopted last month that had urged all nations to combat the ISIS threat.

According to the latest estimate more than 43 percent of ISIS revenue comes from the illegal oil trade. Russian Ministry of Defense reconnaissance data gathered as part of the military operation in the Syrian skies shows that most of the illegal smuggling is done through Turkey.

The hot subject of alleged oil profiteering by the Turkish side follows the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber by Turkey in Syrian airspace amid the ongoing campaign against ISIS oil infrastructure on the Syria-Turkey border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the act as “a stab in the back” by terrorist supporters and accused Turkey of involvement in the illegal oil deals with ISIS. Following the rogue act by Turkey, Russia introduced several sanctions against Ankara and deployed additional missile defense capabilities to protect its operating space in Syria.

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