Source: World Energy Outlook, IEA, Petroleum Economist, Institute for the Study of War via the BBC.

At what has been described as a “rare security council meeting” the United States and Russia are expected to co-sponsor a resolution “targeting financing of terrorist organizations“. 

Much of this money is raised through the “taxes” the group imposes on those who live within its territory. This includes an $800-per-truck levy on vehicles entering Iraq from Jordan and Syria, a 5 percent tax collected for social welfare and salaries, a $200 road tax on drivers in northern Iraq, a 50 percent tax for the ability to loot Raqqa’s archaeological sites, and a 20 percent tax at similar sites in Aleppo, according to the Thomson Reuters study. Additionally, non-Muslims must pay a religious protection fee known as jizya. – Colum Lynch and David Francis, 15 December 2015, Foreign Policy.

While fighting the means terrorist organizations finance themselves is valiant, this is by no means the first instance of the security council meeting to tackle the issue.

Acting together, Washington and Moscow are proposing to update a Security Council resolution to include Islamic State, along with al Qaeda and the Taliban, as the primary terrorist threats facing the world, according to the U.S. officials…. The measure will include travel bans on Islamic State members, a freeze on their assets and an embargo on arms transfers. – Jay Soloman, 16 December 2015, The Wall Street Journal.

This will be a significant step in tearing apart the readily available resources terrorist organizations like IS can rely upon. Furthermore it will better aid US-Russia relations.

What vexes the United States and Russia is not just their own differences about the future of Syria, but the rival agendas of their allies in the region, namely Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran. – Somini Sengupta, 16 December 2015, The New York Times.

Even after the proposed resolution, more talks are expected to follow to discuss any hope of regional stability.

That cooperation will also be on display Friday in New York, when foreign ministers from the 19 countries making up the International Support Group on Syria gather for talks on ending the nearly five-year-old civil war. – Margaret Besheer, 17 December 2015, VOA.

Ultimately it is largely due to these meetings that hope still persists in these dark times throughout the Middle East, under the assumption that something is being done to alleviate the grip of those behind said darkness in an international effort to relinquish the power of terrorist organizations and return it to civil society.