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US export up to 66,000 barrels of oil from Syria daily, Russian embassy says

It is reported that the people of Syria are alarmed by this unprecedented theft of Syrian oil

WASHINGTON, August 25. /TASS/. The US-led entities export up to 66,000 barrels of oil from Syria daily, according to a joint statement of the interdepartmental coordination headquarters of Russia and Syria.

"According to the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, U.S.-led entities illegally export up to 66,000 barrels of oil daily, representing 80% of the daily production of hydrocarbons. The scale of Washington’s oil theft has reached a peak. Because of this the humanitarian situation in the country remains difficult, millions of Syrians face energy, food and water shortages and are in need of basic necessities," according to the document published by Russia’s embassy in Washington on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

"Russia and Syria strongly condemn <…> the plundering of the natural resources belonging to the Syrian people by the occupying countries," the statement said.

The people of Syria are alarmed by this unprecedented theft of Syrian oil, according to the statement. "We call on the international community <…> to take strong measures to suppress the smuggling of Syrian oil," the coordination headquarters noted.

Damascus regularly accuses Washington of smuggling Syrian oil. In particular, the SANA news agency reported on August 21 that the American military had carried 137 tanks with oil from regions controlled by the Kurdish groups in Syria’s north-east.

The US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces currently control most of Syria’s eastern and northeastern Al-Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces. The US military command has established nine military bases there since 2015. Damascus views the US military presence in Syria as illegal occupation.

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