Trump Stealing Syria’s Oil: UN Envoy

Date: 21 August 2020 - 23:22

News ID: ۸۱۹۷۲

NEW YORK (Dispatches) – Syria’s Ambassador to UN Bashar al-Jaafari says U.S. President Donald Trump is stealing the Arab country’s oil, referring to a recent deal signed between the Kurdish-led so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and an American company.
The agreement was reportedly inked by Delta Crescent Energy LLC for the oil wells in areas controlled by the U.S.-backed SDF in northeastern Syria.
Mission representative Bashar al-Jaafari told the UN Security Council that "the U.S. occupation forces, in full view of the United Nations and the international community, took a new step to plunder Syria’s natural resources, including Syrian oil and gas” by establishing the company Delta Crescent Energy.
Al-Jaafari said that the firm, "with the sponsorship and support of the U.S. administration, has entered into a contract with the so-called SDF militia, an agent of the U.S. occupation forces in northeastern Syria, with the aim of stealing Syrian oil and depriving the Syrian state and Syrian people of the basic revenues necessary to improve the humanitarian situation, provide for livelihood needs, and reconstruction”.
Al-Jaafari also voiced concern over the council’s silence toward the U.S. occupation of Syrian territories and Washington’s support for terrorist groups operating across the Arab country.
"The U.S. behavior, which contradicts the international law and the UN Charter and the Security Council resolutions, didn’t come suddenly as the American administration has persisted through its illegal coalition to launch repeated attacks over the Syrian Arab Army forces to prevent them from liberating the regions that were occupied by terrorist organization such as Daesh in the northeast of Syria,” he said.
The ambassador also said the U.S. had recently carried out an airstrike in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, killing a soldier and injuring two others.
The airstrike reportedly took place after a government checkpoint refused passage to a U.S. patrol that tried to break into a zone controlled by the Syrian Army. Two helicopters are said to have conducted the attack.
Furthermore, al-Jaafari said some permanent members of the Security Council are desperately attempting to undermine the political process in Syria.
He said Western pressures have hindered the 15-member council from playing its role in preserving the rules of the UN Charter.
"Since the adoption of the political process by Security Council as a basis for solution to the crisis in Syria, some permanent member countries in this council have sought to hinder this approach to the degree that a number of these countries unfortunately turned to use it practically to support the terrorist war on Syria,” he said.
Al-Jaafari said a national team is ready to participate in the next round of committee meetings that will be held in the Swiss city of Geneva.
The Syrian envoy also demanded that this process remain Syrian-led without any external pressure or intervention.