US waging brutal war on Syria, which must be stopped: Former senator

Richard Black made the comments in an international conference held by Schiller Institute in Washington DC, as part of a speech on “The US aggressiveness, the terrorist war on Syria, and role of the US and NATO in that.”

Black reaffirmed that the US administration supports terrorist organizations to destroy Syria and steal the Arab country’s wealth, and it imposes sanctions to deprive the Syrian people of the basic necessities of life, stressing the need to stop “this madness.”

“I am astonished by the outrageous US aggression against Syria,” Black said.

“It is important to acknowledge after ten years of war that the West loves terrorists whom the Syrian people hate.”

The former US senator underlined that Washington is not fighting a war on terror as it claims, but rather it is closely allied with terrorists such as al-Qaeda terrorist group to implement its political and exploitative agendas.

“The American forces invaded in 2015 illegally northern Syria and seized the Syrian oil. An American oil company was authorized to build a refinery at a cost of USD 150 million and to explore for more oil on the sovereign Syrian land,” Black said. “The United States stole the wealth of these people, leaving the Syrians to freeze in the winter while we steal their fuel.”

Black added, “The same area in the north is Syria’s bread basket, and this was also stolen. We gave it to the mercenaries who ship Syrian wheat to Turkish merchants while the Syrians are starving.”

Black also censured illegal US sanctions against Syria and stressed that the hostile measures had caused immense suffering for the Syrian civilians.

“The [Western] sanctions [against Syria] do nothing but attack the innocent, the poor and the helpless… It is one of the cruelest and most barbaric types of war that could be launched,” he said.

“We steal food, fuel and medicine from the poor… We ban the supplies needed for reconstruction with the aim of prolonging the war, which will continue as long as we continue to fund it.”

“The world must reject these never-ending wars…We have fought for 10 years against the Syrians…This madness must stop.”

During his speech, Black also censured the intense propaganda campaign launched by the United States and NATO against Syria and their false accusations that the Syrian military had used chemical weapons in the fight against terrorist groups.

Black referred to the 2018 remarks by then Defense Secretary James Mattis who admitted that the United States had no evidence of these allegations.

The Syrian army is fighting to drive out remaining militants in the country, but the presence of US and European forces in addition to Turkish troops has slowed down its advances.

Syrian government troops and their allies have managed to retake roughly 80 percent of the war-ravaged Arab country’s territory from the Takfiri terrorists since 2011.

In recent years, the US has been maintaining an illegal military presence in Syrian oil-rich regions, collaborating with militants against Syria’s legitimate government.

Damascus says the United States’ unilateral sanctions are “crimes against humanity” and the Western sponsors of terrorism must pay the price for their atrocities against the Syrian nation.