UNSC approved resolution targeting sources of financing for ISIS, Al-Nusrah Front

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 12 February 2015 unanimously adopted a resolution to choke off the source of financing for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Nusrah Front (ANF).

ISIS and ANF earn millions of dollars from oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking and ransom payments.

The resolution was sponsored by Russia and was adopted unanimously by all the 193 member states.

Main Highlights of the Resolution
• The resolution adopted by the Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which authorizes the use of force, condemned any engagement in direct or indirect trade, in particular of oil and oil products, and modular refineries, with ISIL, ANF and Al-Qaida affiliates.
• The resolution calls for sanctions against individuals, groups, undertakings and entities that trade in oil these groups.
• The resolution also condemned the destruction and smuggling of cultural heritage in Iraq and Syria by ISIS and ANF.
• It called all Member States to take appropriate steps to prevent the trade in such properties illegally removed from Iraq since 6 August 1990 and from Syria since 15 March 2011.
• The resolution also called on the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to assist the member states in such efforts under UNESCO’s 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

The resolution was called on in the wake of a spate of some vicious killings which includes beheading of a Japanese journalist and the immolation of a Jordanian pilot by ISIL in the past two weeks.