Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — France has determined that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was selling crude oil to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Officials said French intelligence has tracked ISIL sales of oil from the Dir Al Zour province to the Assad regime.

They said the oil sales marked secret cooperation between ISIL and Assad as well as his Iranian allies.

“We have proof that when ISIL took over oil it sold oil to the regime,”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

At a news conference on June 30, Fabius said ISIL and Damascus were
“very often helping each other.”

Earlier, Western diplomats reported ISIL oil sales to neighboring Turkey, said to have long tolerated the Al Qaida presence in the NATO state.

  Bashar Assad, Dir Al Zour, had covert ties with Iran, Intel: ISIL sold crude oil to Assad regime, Laurent Fabius