US, allied terrorist groups continue to loot Syria’s wealth, strategic resources: Damascus

Syria says the United States and its allied Takfiri terrorist groups continue to violate the country's sovereignty and plunder its wealth and strategic natural resources.

Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates made the remark in two identical letters on Sunday, which were addressed to Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres and the rotating President of the Security Council Ferit Hoxha.

Damascus demanded that the US administration be held accountable for looting the country's riches and be obliged to compensate for the unlawful act.

Syria also called for an end to aggressive practices and violations of international principles and the UN Charter by US occupation troops, who are illegally present in the northeastern part of the country and the strategic southeastern region of al-Tanf.

The letters further noted that Washington and its allied terrorists plunder Syria’s strategic assets in order to increase the strain of unilateral sanctions on Syrian people, prolong their suffering, and deprive them of their national assets.

The Syrian foreign ministry put the damage inflicted on the Syrian oil and mineral sectors as a result of "acts of aggression and sabotage" by US forces and their allied terrorists at $115.2 billion. 

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The ministry stated that 150,000 barrels of Syrian crude oil are being smuggled out of the country on a daily basis, adding that 59.9 million cubic meters of natural gas as well as 413 thousand tons of refined gas, worth $21.4 billion, have also been stolen.

Moreover, vandalism and theft of specialized equipment have resulted in damages amounting to $3.2 billion.

The US-led military coalition, purportedly formed to fight the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, has also inflicted losses standing at $2.9 billion on Syria's oil and gas facilities, the letters highlighted.

The value of indirect losses to Syria’s economy amounts to $87.7 billion, which includes lost benefits from crude oil, natural gas and refined gas as a result of a sharp drop in their production, the letters read.

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Iran advises the United States to take its military forces out of Syria.

The Syrian foreign ministry also called for an end to the illegal presence of US occupation forces and return of Syria’s energy reserves and natural resources to the Damascus government, so that it can improve the humanitarian and living conditions of Syrians.

The letters came on the same day that the US military used dozens of tankers to smuggle crude oil from Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah to neighboring Iraq.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, citing local sources in al-Ya'rubiyah town, reported that a convoy of 40 tankers left Syria through the illegal Mahmoudiya border crossing on Sunday, heading towards Iraq.

The sources added that another convoy of US occupation forces, consisting of 55 tankers, rumbled through the same border crossing hours later and entered Iraq.

The US military has stationed forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming the deployment is aimed at preventing the oil fields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

Damascus, however, maintains that the unauthorized US deployment is aimed at plundering the country’s rich mineral resources.

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