BNN
"Turkey adamantly opposes U.S. plans for Syrian oil, including Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposal to use crude revenue to help fund American military operations in the war-torn nation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Tuesday that it has become clear over the past two weeks that “the priority of all interested parties in Syria, apart from Turkey, is to secure oil resources.”Last week, Trump said he’s going to work something out with formerly (nice spin- still US backed forces is more accurate)U.S.-backed Kurdish forces so they have cash flow, moving American forces close to the oil fields and holding out the possibility that an American oil company could get involved. U.S. control over Syria’s oil fields will keep them out of Islamic State’s hands and deny Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran a monetary windfall, his administration reasons.
Recall this most recent mention of the reasons the US will hold Syria's oil? 2- The US wants to control Syria's oil for a number of reasons:(a) the purpose of DENYING access to the oil from Damascus. (b) The US wants their Kurdish proxies to have control of the oil so the Kurdish proxies can enrich themselves and the stolen territory they call Rojova.
Just as Syrians should be able to determine their own political future, they should also be allowed to decide how the resources of their own land should be spent,” Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan’s chief of communications, wrote on Twitter late Tuesday, adding that oil revenue should be used for reconstruction efforts and to support civilians uprooted during Syria’s civil war.
Iran, Russia condemn US military presence around oil fields in Syria
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, discussed the issue at a news conference alongside Turkey's top diplomat Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday.
“Well, it seems that the United States is staying to protect the oil,” Zarif said ironically. “At least President Trump is honest to say what the United States intends to do,” he added to laughter.
Lavrov, in turn, said that the return of American forces to Syria, after their transfer to Iraq, was “under the pretext of protecting oil deposits” from the Daesh terror group. He further reminded the US of the illegality of any exploitation of a sovereign country’s natural resources.
“The essence is that any illegal exploitation of natural resources of a sovereign state without its consent is illegal and that is the view that we share,” he said. “Our US colleagues are aware of our position and we will defend that position.”
Separately, Fahrettin Altun, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director, stressed Syria’s right to its own oil reserves, saying, “Syria’s natural resources belong to Syrians.”
“Oil or other types of revenue should be used for reconstruction efforts including local infrastructure, support for civilians, IDPs (internally displaced persons), and refugees. Just as Syrians should be able to determine their own political future, they should also be allowed to decide how the resources of their own land should be spent,” he tweeted.