“We call on the United States to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, unilaterally lift sanctions, and end the theft of Syria’s national resources,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a briefing.
Since early August, there have
been at least 10 oil thefts by US troops in Syria. Some 800 tankers were used
to transport stolen oil to US bases outside of Syria. In the meantime, Syrian
people have had to queue for hours to fill up at the gas station.
According to the Asian spokesman, the US government has a duty to investigate robberies committed by intervening military forces, as well as to compensate for the damages caused.
In this sense, the diplomat said, “This is not the first time that the United States military has stolen oil from Syria and they seem to be becoming more and more uncontrollable.”
From this he cited Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources, which said, “The US military and their backed armed forces exported 82 percent of the barrels of Syrian oil in the first half of 2022.”
For its part, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said last week that around 40 civilian facilities had been destroyed or damaged in fighting by US forces.
In return, the Syrian Foreign Ministry has condemned the serious damage inflicted by US forces and their armed groups in the oil and gas sector since the US intervention in the conflict.
