(Middle East Monitor) – The European Union Ambassador in Iraq, Jana Hybášková, has accused some European countries of purchasing oil from the Islamic State, or IS, Anadolu news agency reported.
Hybášková’s remarks came during a speech on Tuesday before the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, during which she refused to disclose the identities of those EU member states that fund the radical organisation by purchasing oil from it, despite pressing questions from several deputies who requested to know.
She said that tankers loaded with oil purchased from the Islamic State have arrived in several European countries across the region and demanded for the European Union to “exert pressure on Iran, Kurdistan and Turkey in order to stop this trade”.
Anadolu also quoted her as saying: “The EU countries that provided arms to the Peshmerga forces to support their fight against the Islamic State did not coordinate amongst each other,” adding that “there are no guarantees until now to confirm or deny that the Islamic State or Kurdish terrorist organisations have not seized those weapons.”
She stressed the need to develop an international legal framework led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO, in order to defeat the Islamic State and warned European parliamentarians against supporting Kurdistan’s independence, saying that “such a move could cause a full collapse of the Middle East”.
