Syria conflict: Russian Federation accuses Erdogan of trading oil with IS

It came as Obama´s Pentagon chief said the U.S. would increasingly rely on special operations forces to battle Daesh fighters in Iraq and Syria, where the extremists have seized huge swathes of territory including oil fields used to fund their activities.

A second source in Gazprom, who also did not want to be identified, said: “We’re still hoping that Turkish Stream will be pushed back by a few years, rather than completely cancelled”. Both pilots aboard the Russian warplane that was shot down on November 24th ejected and parachuted to the ground on the Syrian side of the border.

Obama said the USA was eager to accelerate work on its military-to-military relationship with Turkey to ensure its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally was safe and to help resolve the conflict in Syria.

Reuters reports that Obama said the United States supported Turkey’s right to defend its airspace, but he also urged the two countries to “de-escalate tensions”.

Mr Obama said that he and Mr Erdogan had discussed how to ease tension between Russian Federation and Turkey, to address the threat posed by the Islamic State and to bring about a political resolution in Syria.

President Obama listens to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a bilateral meeting in Tuesday in Paris.

“We have not lived with natural gas all our lives… this nation is accustomed to hardship”, said Erdogan, emphasising that Turkey had suppliers other than Russian Federation.

Officials said that the Russian air force’s bombing campaign had made a significant dent in Islamic State’s ability to produce, refine and sell oil. “Slowly we then are able to get everybody’s attention diverted where it needs to be – going after ISIL [another acronym for ISIS] in a serious way”, he said. Turkey claims the plane was given ten warnings before being shot down, while Russian Federation upholds the plane was not flying in Turkish airspace. “It is possible to preserve the Syrian state … in which the interests of various groups inside Syria are represented”. A slogan in Turkish and Russian on the poster reads as ‘Killer Putin!’

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies have feared some sort of confrontation with Russian Federation since Moscow started launching airstrikes against militant targets in Syria in September.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called for the opening of communication channels between Ankara and Moscow to prevent further incidents like the downing of the warplane.

Turkish officials say the plane violated Turkish air space after being repeatedly warned to change its course. “If they don’t want me, I’ll be happy to leave it. I don’t have any problem”.

Ankara’s position is that Assad must go for the conflict to end – a position also held by the United States.

“We want peace to prevail at all costs”, Mr Erdogan said.

Russia also took steps to restrict Russians from traveling to Turkey, which could hit the Turkish tourism industry hard.