BY OWN CORRESPONDENT
United States President Donald Trump approved the conducting of an expanded military mission to ensure the safety of oil fields in eastern Syria.
The holding of Syrian oil and gas fields is a strategic issue for the US in the framework of their policy in that country.
At the State Department, they said that “local authorities”, which in practice are Kurdish gangs, pump oil in US-controlled military districts in eastern Syria.
They said that oil, which is the State property of Syria, is extracted “for the benefit of local communities,” suggesting that Kurds from Washington’s point of view received a mandate for such a direct plunder of natural resources belonging to the entire Syrian people.
At the same time, in accordance with all international norms, natural resources belong to a State and solutions to their extraction and distribution of profit shall be taken by a government.
In the case of Syrian oil, the Americans feel their master, having invaded the country illegally and acting like colonizers.
Despite statements by Trump about the withdrawal of American troops from Syria, more than 500 American soldiers with armoured vehicles, as well as employees of private military companies, were allocated to protect the Syrian fields held by Kurdish militants.
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Before these oil deposits were seized by the Americans and Kurdish militants in 201, they were held by Islamic State terrorists. Islamists have launched a brisk trade in oil on the black market.
Many experts cited Turkey as the main outlet where Syrian hydrocarbons were transported through intermediaries.
As Syrian territory was freed from ISIS terrorists, most of the deposits east of the Euphrates River came under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces and their curators from the United States.
The main players involved in the Syrian conflict – Russia and Iran – operating in Syria at the request of the legitimate Syrian government, believe that such American actions ARE direct violation of international law and the sovereignty of Syria, and that the US and Kurdish militants’ “business” on the contraband of stolen oil is criminal.
At the same time, the US useS the principle of supporting the “Syrian opposition” at the expense of seized resources.
Not at the expense of the money allocated by the US for this project, but at the expense of stolen Syrian oil.
According to various estimates, the volume of illegal oil production in areas controlled by Kurds amounts to more than $30 million per month.
Not much, but enough to support Kurdish militants from oil revenues, and not from the US treasury.
This is confirmed by the words of the American president himself who said: “We have secured the oil. If you remember, I didn’t want to go into Iraq.
“I was a civilian, so I had no power over it. But I always was speaking against going into Iraq.
“It was not a great decision.”
But I always said, “If you are going in, keep the oil.” Same thing here: “Keep the oil. We want to keep the oil.
“And we’ll work something out with the Kurds so that they have some money, they have some cashflow.
“Maybe we’ll get one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly.
“But they’ll have some cashflow, which they basically don’t have right now.
“Everybody is fighting. It is not a big oil area, but everybody is fighting for whatever there is. So, we have a lot of good things going over there, and they are going very well”.
According to international experts, Syria has the right for compensation from the US for oil stolen from the people of the country.
This question must be the subject of an international hearing at the United Nations court of arbitration.