Source: New.TheCradle.co
The Syrian government on 10 September called on the UN and the international community at large to hold US officials “accountable” for the ongoing theft of Syrian oil from the resource-rich northeast.
“US officials [must] be held accountable for the looting, and the US government [must] be obliged to pay compensation, end the illegal presence of US forces, and return the lands it occupies and the oil and gas fields to the Syrian state,” a letter from the Syrian foreign ministry addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reads.
“The United States of America and its tools of terrorist organizations and militias continue to violate sovereignty and loot the country’s wealth and strategic resources, with the aim of exacerbating the effects of illegal unilateral coercive measures and depriving Syrians of the capabilities of their homeland and increasing their suffering,” the letter adds.
It also calls on Washington to compensate Damascus for its losses since the start of the war in 2011, which the letter says “amounted to a total of $ 115.2 billion during the period from 2011 until the end of the first half of the year 2023.”
According to the calculations from Syrian officials, direct losses from the oil sector amount to $27.5 billion, resulting from the “theft, waste, and burning of extracted oil estimated at 341 million barrels,” while indirect losses amount to $87.7 billion.
Furthermore, officials highlighted that – as of 2023 – Washington and its proxy militias in northeast Syria are plundering 150 thousand barrels per day (bpd) in addition to 59.9 million cubic meters of natural gas and 413 thousand tons of domestic gas.
According to the letter, these practices violate the principles of international law and the provisions of the UN Charter.
The letter was issued just hours after the US occupation army conducted its latest oil smuggling operation in northeast Syria, smuggling 95 tankers filled with Syrian oil to their bases in Iraq via the illegal Al-Mahmoudiya border crossing.
Local sources in the occupied Hasakah governorate said US troops escorted 40 tankers of crude oil on Sunday, less than a day after 55 tankers were also taken out of Syria….