MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2019) The United States uses the revenue from selling Syrian oil to prop up loyal armed groups in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
On October 29, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that the US would defend oil fields in Syria and would respond with force to any attempt to capture them, letting in neither Russian nor Syrian forces.
"Take oil, for instance. 'We will let the ISIL [banned in Russia] be, but we will guard oil so that it would not be seized by the Syrian state.' Our Defense Ministry has given a thorough and document-based account of what the Americans do with oil," Lavrov told the International Review program on Russia 24 tv channel.
The foreign minister further elaborated on that point.
"Oil is transported out of Syria and, of course, the United States supports loyal armed groups with the revenues from [selling] that oil," Lavrov explained.
Earlier in the week, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said that the oil-rich territories in northeastern Syria must be controlled by the country's government.
