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ISTANBUL, Dec. 8-- Russia's claim about oil being regularly transported from eastern Syria to Turkey and Iraq suggests that Moscow may have misgivings about Ankara's position on the Syrian province of Idlib, analysts told Xinhua. The Russian statement is an indication of some problems between Ankara and Moscow regarding Syria, said Cahit Armagan Dilek, director of the Ankara-based 21st Century Turkey Institute. RUSSIAN CLAIM MEANINGFUL Russian Chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said Wednesday that Russian intelligence services had spotted regular transportation of oil by a convoy of trucks from eastern Syria to Turkey and Iraq. The top Russian general also claimed, according to Russia's Sputnik news agency, that the proceeds from the sale of oil products are being spent on financing terrorists from the Islamic State (IS). Dilek finds both the content and the timing of the Russian claim meaningful, noting Moscow also accused Ankara, after a Russian bomber was downed in 2017 by a Turkish fighter jet near Turkey's border with Syria, of buying oil from the IS. Turkey and Russia started to mend ties in the summer of 2016 and they have been cooperating in war-torn Syria ever since. Since last year, they have been partners, together with Iran, in the so-called Astana peace process which aims to politically settle the Syrian conflict. Syria's oil reserves in the east are on the territory controlled by the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units, which has established two self-declared cantons during the war. | 
