NEW DELHI, India – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday (June 30th) that Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadists have sold oil from captured areas of Iraq to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, AFP reported.

Fabius said the sale was evidence of the "confusing" nature of the escalating conflict in the Middle East in which Assad and the jihadists are supposedly on opposing sides.

"We have proofs that when ISIS has taken over oil supplies it has sold the oil to the (Assad) regime," Fabius told a news conference in New Delhi.

The rebels declared a caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria on Sunday.

The rebels in Syria and the Assad regime use each other to derive legitimacy, Fabius said. "Officially they are combatting each other, but in fact they are very often helping each other," he said.