US Occupation Tankers Smuggling Crude Oil from Syria’s Hasakah to Northern Iraq
Reports say that the US military has employed dozens of tanker trucks to illegally transport crude oil from Hasakah in Syria to northern Iraq, a move that further demonstrates the US's exploitation of resources in the conflict-ridden country.
Monday saw 33 tankers filled with oil from the energy-producing Jazira and Sharqia regions of Syria cross the Mahmoudiya border illegally and make their way into Iraq, according to Syria’s official news agency SANA and local sources.
On April 22, SANA reported that American occupation forces had taken 33 tankers to steal natural resources from an Arab nation via the Mahmoudiya crossing.
On the same day, 40 U.S. military tankers filled with Syrian crude oil crossed the al-Waleed border crossing of al-Ya’rubiyah region and made their way into Iraq.
For a long time, the US military has had its forces and equipment stationed in northeastern Syria, asserting that the deployment is to keep the oilfields in the area from being seized by Daesh terrorists.
Donald Trump admitted on multiple occasions that the US had sent forces to Syria for the purpose of exploiting the country’s natural resources. This, however, has been refuted by Damascus, claiming that the deployment was not to plunder the natural resources.
In August, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly denounced the US occupation forces’ stealing of Syria’s oil and other resources, declaring that their actions are a flagrant violation of international law and humanitarian standards.
In a statement released on April 22, the ministry highlighted that the US military had been plundering Syrian oil and other natural resources in the past weeks, smuggling them through northern Iraq to Turkey.
The Ministry emphasized that these acts will only increase the misery of the Syrian people and extend the economic hardships in the country.
