Special to WorldTribune.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has warned Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani over accusations that Erdogan and his family are involved in black market oil trading with Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

In a phone conversation on Dec. 3, Erdogan said he told Rouhani: “You will pay a high price if it continues like that.”

Russia has accused Erdogan and his family of involvement in obtaining oil from ISIL-controlled territory and said that satellite photos Moscow had showing oil tankers leaving ISIL territory and entering Turkey proved the allegations.

Erdogan called the Russian charges “slander” and “immoral.”

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said on Dec. 6 that Ankara was “astonished” and “was not taking seriously the terrorism accusations made by the states which led to the escalation of the crisis in cooperation with the Damascus regime,” referring to Iran and Russia.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Dec. 4, in response to Erdogan, called for “mutual politeness and respect in relations,” according to the Iranian media.

“The continuation of policies and positions that, wanted or unwanted, have led to the support of terrorism in Syria and Iraq, only escalate the current crisis in the region and increase problems for countries that continue such policies,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber-Ansari said according to IRNA.

  Erdogan to Iran’s Rouhani: ‘You will pay a high price’ for ISIL oil charges, Hassan Rouhani, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, WorldTribune.com