Iran Press/ Middle East: US forces began digging in Syria in 2016-2017, with ex-US president Donald Trump stating repeatedly (to the Washington establishment’s horror) that the United States would "keep the oil" and retain boots on the ground in Syria "only for the oil." The Biden White House claims US forces remain in the country to prevent ISIS resurgence, but US actions speak otherwise.
“The US occupation forces brought to their bases in northern Iraq a convoy consisting of 120 vehicles, including 65 tankers, some of them carrying covered damaged military equipment, 20 refrigerated trucks, and 35 tanks loaded with stolen Syrian oil,” the local sources in the al-Yarubiyah countryside in eastern Hasakah province told Syrian media, adding that the convoy was accompanied by four Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia pickups for protection.
The report follows on reporting last week that a convoy of 39 tankers loaded with Syrian crude left fields in Hasakah and was similarly smuggled into Iraq, this time via the Mahmoudiya checkpoint – another border crossing that the Syrian government doesn’t control and hence considers illegal.
Sources said that in addition to shipping oil out, US forces brought some 30 trucks and tankers containing cement and logistical materials into Syria through the al-Walid crossing to shore up their bases in the country.
On June 1 and June 3, the media reported on the smuggling of 49 and 45 more tankers of Syrian oil through Mahmoudiya, respectively. Between April and May, over 130 more tankers loaded to the brim with crude passed through al-Walid and Mahmoudiya.
The US continued to engage in oil smuggling activities even in March, mere weeks after the devastating earthquakes which rocked northern Syria, killing thousands.
Damascus calculated last year that the nation’s energy sector had suffered some $107 billion in losses between 2011 and 2022, with damage done by US occupation forces, coalition bombings, improper exploitation and theft, and looting by terrorist and separatist forces.
The US occupation of a third of the country, which also includes much of its most fertile agricultural lands, has turned Syria into a net importer of both energy and food, with Iran and Russia stepping in to assist. Crews of Iranian ocean-going tankers often have to risk life and limb to make it to Syria’s Mediterranean coast to offload their fuel cargoes amid sabotage operations by the Zionist entity, a sworn enemy of both Damascus and Tehran.
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