EU targets Assad-IS oil deals with sanctions

EU targets Assad-IS oil deals with sanctions
EU issues new sanctions against middlemen accused of being involved in arranging oil deals between Syria's Assad regime and the Islamic State group.
3 min read
07 March, 2015
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is accused of cooperating with IS (AFP).

A "middleman" accused of being a conduit in oil deals between the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State group is one of a number of individuals placed on a new sanctions list released by the European Union on Saturday.

George Haswani is accused of using a gas plant he owns in Tabqa, a town in central Syria controlled by IS, to faciliate deals between Assad and the IS group.

The plant is believed to be jointly run by Assad officials and IS, and, despite being in IS territory, continues to supply areas still under Assad's control.

Tabqa is one of a number of oil and gas facilities run in partnership between Assad and IS, with officials in IS-controlled facilities remaining on the central state's payroll.

The British foreign minister, Philip Hammond, described the sanctions as evidence that Assad supports IS.

"We have agreed to target individuals supplying oil to the regime, including George Haswani, a middleman buying oil from IS on behalf of the regime. This listing gives yet another indication that Assad's 'war' on IS is a sham and that he supports them financially," Hammond said.

Haswani, the owner of a company called Hesco, will have his assets frozen in EU banks and will be barred from visiting the EU.

     This listing gives yet another indication that Assad's 'war' on IS is a sham.
- Philip Hammond, UK foreign secretary.


He is one of 13 people and entities placed on the sanctions list, bringing the number targeted by EU sanctions related to the conflict in Syria to 218 people and 69 entities.

Others sanctioned include DK Group, a firm that supplies the central bank of Syria with Russian-made banknotes.

Fighting in Syria has been ongoing for four years since the Assad regime brutally put down protests that began in March 2011. More than 200,000 civilians are estimated to have died in the conflict, and groups such as IS have emerged out of the chaos.

The Syrian National Coalition, a body that represents the 'moderate opposition' to the Assad regime, have welcomed the new EU sanctions.

"These are people and entities that ensure that the Assad regime is able to continue to slaughter its own population," Mouaffaq Nyrabia, the SNC's representative to the EU, said in a statement.

"Until the Assad regime and its main backers - Russia, Iran and Hizballah - feel sufficient pressure, the efforts to secure a political solution, including those of UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura, will not succeed.”

De Mistura proposes that fighting stop in Aleppo for six weeks, and that Assad should be part of a political solution to the conflict.