ANKARA
By Selen Tonkus
Fighters led by ISIL have established an oil trading network within Syria which includes other opposition groups and the Assad regime, according to experts on Syria.
Having taken major oil fields in the north of Syria, ISIL is rumored to have created a local market in which they produce oil and sell it within the country to other opposition-held areas, as well as Assad regime, either directly or indirectly.
Professor Eyal Zisser, a Syria expert and Dean of the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Social Sciences, said: "There are tacit arrangements between Islamic State and local state officials to ensure that basic services such as electricity, water and mobile phone services operate."
He said it was well known that the regime, the opposition and ISIL were fighting each other but, at the same time, were pragmatic enough to reach local opportunistic deals such as in oil trading.
- 'Struggle for resources'
Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and the head of the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies, said all sides had tried to exploit oil sources and use them for their own purposes.
He said: "The Assad regime, which is under an embargo by the international community, needs both oil and money to run its war machine and to pay the salaries of the roughly two million employees loyal to him."
Regarding the opposition, Landis said it was desperate for money, energy and guns to defend itself, feed families and conquer additional territory.
Landis said: "It is little wonder that oil has become central to all fights in the country, as it is the only resource that Syria has.
"Each group, not to mention local farmers and smugglers, are trying to make a lira and win the struggle for resources."
ISIL militants have taken the Raqqa, Dair az Zor and al Omar oil fields in the north of Syria since last November.
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