United States Has ‘No Right’ to Syrian Oil, Adviser to President Assad Says

American Troops keeping a Syrian oil Field

A top adviser to Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad says the United States has no right to Syria’s oil and has warned of “operations” against American troops guarding the oil fields, NBC News reports.

Bouthaina Shaaban, who is a political and media adviser to Bashar al-Assad, recently told NBC News that the U.S. has “absolutely no right; it is our oil.”

“He’s talking about stealing it,” she added in her office at Syria's presidential palace in Damascus, referring to President Donald Trump’s declaration earlier this year that the U.S. would “keep” Syrian oil.

In October, the Trump administration announced plans to withdraw some 1,000 troops from Syria, amounting to most of the U.S. military presence in the country. But he later reversed course, approving an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria.

President Trump then suggested that he would leave some U.S. troops in Syria to protect oil resources, but said he saw no need for U.S. forces to defend America's Kurdish partners.

"We never agreed to protect the Kurds for the rest of their lives," Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

"Where is the agreement we have to stay in the Middle East for the rest of humanity?" he added.

Trump said the military personnel would be "leaving not expeditiously, intelligently" and that the priority would be protecting the region's oil resources. 

He said the U.S. would work out a deal where some oil revenue would go to the Kurds, and suggested a large oil company could be involved. He also said the U.S. would leave a small number of troops near Jordan at the request of Israel.

"Keep the oil, we want to keep the oil and we will work something out with the Kurds so they have some money, they have some cash flow," Trump said.

Bashar al-Assad's adviser said Trump has no right to Syria’s oil and keeping American troops for continuous stealing of the Syrian resources will eventually have repercussions. 

Syria’s oil reserves estimated in 2011 at around 2.5 billion barrels. Production shrunk from a peak of 380,000 barrels a day to an estimated 80,000 now, and the fields are in disarray from years of conflict and mismanagement. 

Currently, the Kurdish-led administration sells the oil on the local market or through smuggling it to the Syrian government.

Pentagon officials indicated the U.S. presence is not intended to improve the oil infrastructure but to keep it in the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

But there were wide spread allegations of U.S. troops in Syria doing away with with crude oil and many other valuable resources in the war thorn Arab country.

Common Dreams reported last month, Pentagon officials have asserted the authority to shoot any Syrian government official who attempts to retake control of their nation's natural resources.

"Everyone in the region knows where American forces are," Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said in a November press briefing. "We're very clear with anyone in the region in working to deconflict where our forces are. If anyone—we work to ensure that... no one approaches or has—shows hostile intent to our forces, and if they do, our commanders maintain the right of self-defense."

But legal experts say U.S exploiting the Syrian oil could amount to pillaging — a war crime, as it may violate international laws.

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