Syria says planning to sue US for stealing its oil resources

A senior advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Damascus plans to file a lawsuit against Washington for plundering the Arab country’s oil resources.

News ID: 448116

Date: 26 December 2019 - 23:12

RNA - Bouthaina Shaaban said the United States has no right to Syria’s oil, and the Arab country is going to sue it over a plan to steal the oil resources.

Shaaban warned the US of popular opposition and operations against the presence of American troops at Syrian oil fields, and insisted on the exit of all foreign occupiers, whether they are terrorists, Turks or Americans.

She was referring to US President Donald Trump’s September announcement to retain American forces in Syria to secure oil reserves there.

The Syrian government accuses Washington of occupying its oil fields and looting its resources. Russia, too, has branded the US move as banditry.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Monday his country is facing a “methodical plundering” of its oil by the United States, which is conspiring to hinder counterterrorism efforts by Damascus.

Last month, Syria told the United Nations that the US had been occupying its oil fields and looting its resources as the world body remained silent on the act of misappropriation.

"The US occupies Syrian oil wells and plunders the Syrians' revenues in the shadow of the UN Security Council's silence," Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja'afari told a meeting of the 15-member body in New York on November 13.

Syria’s state-run al-Ikhbariya TV reported last week that a large US military convoy had entered oil fields in northeastern Syria, despite widespread condemnation of the deployment as being tantamount to robbery. The reinforcements, the television said, had been dispatched to the provinces of al-Hasakah and Dayr al-Zawr from neighboring Iraq.

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