DAMASCUS (Xinhua) – Syria is estimated to have lost over 100 billion U.S. dollars in the oil and gas sectors due to the theft and unlawful trafficking by the United States, the Syrian Foreign Ministry has said in a statement.
The practices of the U.S. forces, whose presence in Syria is illegal, along with the theft and unlawful trafficking of Syrian oil by the U.S.-backed so-called Syrian Democratic Forces have so far caused direct and indirect losses to Syria’s oil and gas sectors at about 107.1 billion U.S. dollars, said the ministry.
The ministry said the Syrian government holds its right, in accordance with the UN Charter, to take all legal measures to ask for compensation for the losses.
Meanwhile, the ministry pointed out the repercussions and negative impact of the U.S. presence in Syria and its control over the natural resources and energy fields in the country, which is depriving the Syrian people of investing in their resources “at a time when Syria has already been suffering from an acute shortage in energy materials.”
It called on the UN and UN Security Council to develop a “serious approach to deal with the situation in Syria.”
It said the UN resolutions on Syria could not be implemented with the ongoing occupation of Syria’s oil and gas fields by the U.S. troops and also the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its Western allies.
The U.S. and its allies invaded Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist group without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. Damascus has repeatedly condemned the unauthorized presence of the U.S. troops in the Arab country.
The U.S.-led military interference, however, was surprisingly slow in confronting the terrorists, despite the sheer size of the coalition that had enlisted scores of Washington’s allied countries.
Furthermore, Washington backs the Kurdish so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG) militant group, which is the backbone of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militant group, a coalition of militant factions which also receives support from the U.S. and has occupied large parts of northeastern Syria.
Damascus considers the U.S. presence to be an outright violation of its sovereignty. It says it reserves the right to respond to the occupation as it sees fit.