Alwaght- The Russian Defense Ministry published satellite intelligence images proving that oil from Syria was sent abroad under the guard of US servicemen before and after the defeat of the ISIS terrorists, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday.
The ministry said that "the space intelligence images showed that oil was actively extracted and massively exported for processing outside Syria, under the reliable protection of US troops, "Sputnik reported.
Pentagon chief Mark Esper said on Friday that the US intends to take measures in the near future to strengthen positions in the Syrian Deir ez-Zor region to prevent terrorists from accessing oil fields. According to him, the United States is studying how to move forces in the region, "to ensure the safety of oil fields."
Commenting on Esper's statement, the chief spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, denounced the US decision as banditism.
“What Washington does now – the capture and holding under its armed control of oil fields in Eastern Syria is, simply speaking, an international state banditism,” he said, adding that Syrian oil reserves and other mineral resources belong solely to the Syrian Arab Republic, not to Daesh terrorists or to “American protectors from Daesh terrorists”.
“Neither international law, nor the American legislation itself can justify the US troops’ goal to guard Syrian hydrocarbon reserves from Syria itself and its people,” the statement reads.
