As part of the US military’s systematic smuggling of basic commodities out of Syria, a convoy of nearly two dozen US military trucks and tankers has carried tons of grain and crude oil from the northeastern province of Hasakah to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
Local sources, requesting anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that 22 military vehicles loaded with wheat crops and crude oil from the Jazira Region rumbled through al-Waleed border crossing in al-Ya'rubiyah region and entered the Iraqi territories on Wednesday.
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 resources and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Arab country.
“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,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news briefing.
Russia: HTS militants preparing false-flag chemical attack in Syria’s Idlib
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry has warned that members of the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist outfit are planning to stage yet another false-flag chemical attack against civilians in the northwestern province of Idlib to implicate Syrian government forces.
The deputy head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, Major General Oleg Yegorov, said the center has received information that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists intend to use shells containing toxic materials against ordinary people, and then accuse Syrian government troops of assaults on civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
This is while Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.
Back in April 2018, the United States, Britain, and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.
That alleged attack was reported by the so-called White Helmets group, which published videos showing them purportedly treating survivors.
Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation strongly rejected by the Syrian government.
The Western media and governments have repeatedly accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against its own citizens in the war against terrorists.