MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. The US supports terrorist groups in Syria with weapons and continues occupying part of the republic's territory in order to plunder Syrian natural resources, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Tuesday at a news conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

"The US occupies some territories of the Syrian Arab Republic and supports some [terrorist] groups with arms in order to steal Syria's natural resources. Recently, they took 500 cisterns [of oil] out of the Syrian territory, although a Syrian citizen cannot start his car because there are no oil products to do so," he said.

Mekdad noted that Western countries only pursue their interests, even if it comes "at the expense of the lives of the Syrian children." "If they continue to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, they won't care. They don't care about human freedom or the countries’ independence," he added.