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Wednesday, December 02, 2015

US Rejects Russian Oil Smuggling Accusations

US DoD spokesperson Laura Seal rejected Russian Defense Ministry Officials accusations that Turkish Administration is smuggling oil with ISIS, from ISIS held territories in Syria. 

Seal, in an exclusive email, stated this: 
''We reject the premise that the Turkish government is in league with ISIL to smuggle oil.  We have seen no evidence to support such an accusation.

Moreover, Turkey is taking steps to improve the security of its border with Syria, working with international partners. One goal of this effort is to cut off ISIL smuggling.

We view our NATO Ally Turkey as a key partner in the coalition to counter ISIL.   As we are doing with all of our partners and as the President noted yesterday in Paris, we continue to discuss with Turkey what more they could do within the counter-ISIL effort and how we can better cooperate to ensure ISIL's defeat.

As President Obama has said, we support Turkey's right to defend its airspace and territory.  President Obama has also emphasized the importance of Turkey and Russia working together to de-escalate their confrontation and ensure such an unfortunate incident is not repeated.''

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