Russia accuses US of 'banditry' in protecting Syria's oil
After US Defense Secretary said troops were reinforcing their positions in oilfields near the Syrian-Iraqi borderMOSCOW: Russia on Saturday accused the United States of “international banditry” after Washington announced its intention to protect Syria’s oil fields which are controlled by Kurdish forces. Their mission will be to prevent the militant Islamic State group from gaining access to oil fields and securing “resources that may allow them to strike within the region, to strike Europe, to strike the United States,” Esper told reporters on a visit to Brussels. Some 200 US troops are currently stationed there. “What Washington is currently doing – seizing and placing under control the oil fields of eastern Syria – is simply international banditry,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement. It said all hydrocarbon deposits in Syria do not belong to “the Islamic State terrorists” and “even less to US defenders against Islamic State terrorists, but exclusively to the Syrian Arab Republic.”Read full story
Source: The Express Tribune October 26, 2019 10:52 UTC
