Moscow: Oilfields in Syria must be under control of Syrian state

Moscow, SANA-Russian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that the oilfields in Syria must be under the control of the Syrian state.

In a statement to journalists on Wednesday in a comment on the US administration’s plans to reinforce its military presence in the areas of the oil fields in Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said “Syrian oil is a national asset of all Syrians. [Russia] believes that Syrians should control their own natural resources, including oil.”

The ministry further noted that Russia wouldn’t cooperate with the US on the issue of Syrian oil. “We will not cooperate with the US on the issue of the Syrian oil,” Vershinin said.

Washington tries to complete its colonial role in Syria and the region whether on the political or military levels through its forces which are stealing the Syrian oil, and this is what had been confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry recently as it published photos of oil tanks smuggling oil from Syria under the guard of the US military.

In another context, Vershinin announced that coordination is underway to agree on the date of holding the next round of Astana talks on the crisis in Syria in Nur-Sultan city, indicating that the meeting will be held soon.

13 rounds of Astana talks on settling the crisis in Syria, the latest of which was last August, and all of them underlined the necessity of preserving Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and of eliminating terrorism in the country.

In a relevant context, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Committee on International Affairs Konstantin Kosachev affirmed that the military reinforcements deployed by the US around oilfields in Syria radically violate the Syrian sovereignty.

Kosachev, on his Facebook page, indicated that Washington claims that the goal behind these schemes is to “prevent terrorists from reaching the oilfields,” but the real reason is to “invest the oilfields in Syria regardless of the truth that the Syrian sovereignty is being violated radically in this way which doesn’t concern the West that much.”

Ruaa al-Jazaeri