...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
has imposed sanctions on a Syrian businessman who it says bought oil for the Syrian government from Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
Lions of Islam who have seized wide areas of the country including its oil-producing regions.
The businessman, George Haswani, denied the accusation. He told Rooters by phone that the European Union had no evidence to back up the claim and should instead look for intermediaries he said were smuggling oil to
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
on Islamic State's behalf.
Islamic State has seized much of eastern and northern Syria, including areas at the borders with Iraq and Turkey, declaring the territories part of its "caliphate".
Adding to its list of sanctions on supporters of Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
, the EU said Haswani worked as an intermediary to agree oil contracts between Syria and Islamic State.
"George Haswani provides support (for) and benefits from the regime through his role as a middleman in deals for the purchase of oil from ISIL (Islamic State) by the Syrian regime," the EU said in its official journal without detailing how it reached its conclusion.
"He has close ties to the Syrian regime," the EU said, adding that Haswani also goes by the names Al Hasawani and Heswani.
Haswani's HESCO Engineering & Construction Co is a major business in Syria, the EU said. Haswani said his company builds oil and gas installations, and had worked in Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan.
Haswani told Rooters his company was currently building a gas installation in an area of central Syria that falls under Islamic State influence, adding "this is maybe how these fantasies were constructed".
Western officials have often accused the government of buying oil from Islamic State, but the EU announcement contains some of the most detailed public accusations to date and was welcomed by Britannia's Foreign Minister Philip Hammond.
"This listing gives yet another indication that Assad's 'war' on ISIL is a sham and that he supports them financially," Hammond said in a statement.
Haswani said he would sue the European Union.
Damascus accuses the Turkish government, which is hostile to Assad, of supporting Islamic State in different ways, including by allowing it to smuggle contraband out of northern Syria. Turkey denies the accusations.