The United States has stolen more than 40 Syrian oil tankers and smuggled a new batch of stolen Syrian oil into Iraq.
“A convoy of the US occupation forces, consisting of 43 tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil, left from the illegitimate Mahmoudiya crossing and entered Iraqi territory,” Syria’s official SANA news agency cited local sources as saying on Sunday.
According to the sources, US forces have transferred the convoy to their bases in northern Iraq.
US military trucks and tankers frequently carry tons of grain and crude oil from the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq as part of Washington’s systematic smuggling of basic commodities out of Syria.
The US military has for long stationed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s natural resources. Former US President Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.
On September 21, China called on the United States to stop plundering Syria’s national resources and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Arab country. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also said the US government has a duty to investigate robberies committed by intervening military forces, as well as to compensate for the damages caused.
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