The Biden administration has continued its predecessor's policy of sending convoys filled with military equipment and supplies into Syria, and of smuggling oil out. However, Pentagon officials now deny that US military personnel or contractors are involved in any oil-siphoning activities.
A convoy of 45 trucks carrying military vehicles, equipment, and supplies flanked by fuel tankers has been sent into northeastern Syria by the US-led military coalition, the Syrian Arab News Agency reports, citing local sources in the village of al-Khazna.
The convoy is said to have entered the country through the al-Walid border crossing point with Iraq, which the Syrian government does not have any control over and therefore deems illegal, before crossing the M4 highway on route to destinations in Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah.
SANA says the US coalition has continued to strengthen its illegal presence in northeastern Syria, establishing multiple bases to protect and train allied forces “and terrorist organisations operating under their command,” and to guard oil fields extracting resources and shipping them abroad.
Damascus says the US occupation is illegal and accuses America of seeking to plunder its oil. During his presidency, President Donald Trump openly and repeatedly admitted that “the only forces” he had in Syria were there to “take the oil.” The Biden administration has walked back from this rhetoric,…
