The United States moved to “secure” the oil-rich regions of eastern Syria in October, sparking harsh condemnation from Damascus, and concerns from the international community that US actions were a violation of international laws against pillaging.
President Donald Trump doubled down on his administration’s policy of “taking” Syria’s oil, telling Fox’s Laura Ingraham that the US has it and refusing to give a commitment to hand it back to its rightful owners, the Syrian government.
“They say ‘he left troops in Syria. You know what I did? I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They’re protecting the oil,” Trump said, speaking to the Fox News host.
Ingraham interjected, telling the president “We’re not taking the oil” and suggesting the US troops were “protecting the facilities.”
Trump doubled down on his words: “Maybe we will, maybe we won’t…I don’t know, maybe we should take it. But we have the oil, the United States has the oil. So they say ‘he left troops in Syria’. No. I got rid of all of them other than we’re protecting the oil, we have the oil.”
‘We’re Keeping the Oil’
President Trump has repeatedly boasted about the importance of “securing” Syria’s energy resources in recent months, saying he “liked oil,” and the US would be “keeping the oil.”
Trump’s obsession with keeping foreign countries’ oil goes back to well before his presidency, and he has repeatedly appeared in the media over the past decade talking about the importance of keeping oil, including Iraqi oil.
In late October, the Russian military released a detailed report on US oil-smuggling activities in eastern Syria, complete with satellite intelligence, revealing that the CIA, the Pentagon and private US military contractors were working with Kurdish militias and US-controlled companies to illegally ship over $30 million-worth of Syrian oil out of the war-torn country.
The US moved to seize the oil rich regions in the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor in October, after the US began redeploying troops away from the Syrian border with Turkey amid an abortive Turkish invasion which was halted following diplomatic intervention from Moscow.
In November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blasted US activities in eastern Syria, accusing Washington of seeking to illegally separate territories in eastern Syria to create a separate, illegal quasi-state there.
Before being engulfed in a foreign-backed civil conflict in 2011, Syria produced about 400,000 barrels of oil per day, with this output providing the country with energy self-sufficiency and up to 20 percent of the state’s revenue. Production plummeted during the war, particularly after Daesh (ISIS)* took over wide swathes of eastern Syria.
Although the terrorists have since been driven out of the area, the country’s oil infrastructure has yet to be restored, leading to broader problems with the country’s efforts to rebuild from the war. Damascus has estimated that it could take between $200 and $400 billion to rebuild.
Headquartered in Moscow Russia, Sputnik is a news agency with offices around the world. Sputnik covers global political and economic news for an international audience. Launched in November 2014 by the Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik works in more than 30 languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, and more.
*All posts on behalf of Sputnik News are made by Gordon Duff and Jim W. Dean
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What a repulsive human being.
Our entire government from Donald Adolph Hitler to the 535 whores in Congress to the worthless corrupt SC and everyone in between are all common thieves stealing from other poor countries in our good names. Americans must display some balls and stop this massive obscene criminal behavior by our own government.
Every American must tell their so called “elected representatives” that we do not approve of the gross criminal inhumane treatment our traitors in government are doing to citizens of Syria. Every citizen has the basic right to withhold services. Each American should withhold services until our government criminals resign and allow a new government to be formed. This is called going on strike. Our government has degenerated to common thieves! They act in our good names. They must be told to end this madness against innocent people of Syria today. We have the basic right to withhold services until they stop this madness. If the U.S. purports to be a “Christian” nation, this is a strange definition of Christianity isn’t it? To use military armed force to steal oil belonging to Syria? Shame, shame, shame on the corrupt whores running America today beginning with chief whore Donald Adolph Hitler who learned his evil persona in the cesspool of America New York.
We are stealing from the Syrian people and starving them to death and no one seems to do anything about it. The world leaders are all silent. The United Nations is garbage. As Americans, we are sick and tired of endless wars and wars fought for Israel. All Americans need to come together (UNITED) and get our country back from the Zionists death grip.
Over 60 million people get their paychecks from the DOD. That includes all the veterans and families. That’s one sixth of the US population that wouldn’t shoot themselves in the foot by stopping a huge pipeline for decades called Iran’s war when everyone knows that the only viable sector that is left out of the US economy that will include all in their “projects” ie the defense industry, the oil industry, the corrupt congress, the press, banking and Wall Street, the millions of subcontractors, even Hollywood, is the war industry.
We’re not even including the religious fanatical industry which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Likud that does the expansion of Israel via war, funding, and PR.
Newt, source on the 60M number? Sounds plausible. I think it is primarily due to the complete indoctrination of the american public from birth.
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