RTTue, 18 Feb 2020 21:55 UTC
© Agence France-Presse / Delil Souleiman / FileA US military vehicle drives past an oil pump jack near Qamishli, Syria on October 26, 2019.
Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu slammed the US for occupying Syrian oilfields, calling it a major obstacle to the reconstruction of the country after the conflict.
"The oil fields... are controlled by the US.
There's shameless, impudent pillage of the wealth that belongs to Syria and the Syrian people taking place," Shoigu said during a visit to the Italian capital Rome.
At the same time, the sanctions imposed by Washington against Damascus ban any oil shipments to Syria, putting the country in a tight spot.
"Most of the people, who are now suffering in Syria, are in need of heat, hot water and electricity, which — as we understand it — come from hydrocarbons that are forbidden to be supplied there," the minister pointed out.
Washington has occupied oil fields in northeast Syria in October after the retreat of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists. It said the move was needed to prevent the terrorists from returning to those areas.
US officials have acknowledged that the oil belongs to the Syrian people. However, Russia has said that the Americans have been smuggling the hydrocarbons to other countries, with the convoys protected by US private security firms.
Comment: Assad was not going to
quietly acquiesce to the theft of his country's wealth. From December 2019:
Syria's government is considering suing the United States in an international court over what a senior advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad referred to as the 'stealing' of Syria's oil.
"Syria is looking into the possibility of filing an international lawsuit against the United States, due to the fact that they steal Syrian oil," Bouthaina Shaaban, Syrian Presidential Adviser, told Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV in an interview, carried by Iran's Fars news agency.
[...]
In a separate interview, with NBC News, Assad's advisor Shaaban said that the United States had no right to Syria's oil, warning of "popular opposition and operations against the American occupiers of our oil."
The Kurdish SDF forces control most of Syria's oil. Before the war, Syria was producing 387,000 barrels of oil per day, of which 140,000 bpd were exported.
The one-third of Syria illegally occupied by US and proxy forces contain most of its oil, water and gas
Comment: Assad was not going to quietly acquiesce to the theft of his country's wealth. From December 2019: The one-third of Syria illegally occupied by US and proxy forces contain most of its oil, water and gas