A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter on post at an oilfield in Kurdish-held northeast Syria


The Assad regime has threatened attacks on US forces and lawsuits against Washington over oilfields held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.

Bashar al-Assad’s senior advisor Bouthaina Shaaban told the US outlet NBC News that Donald Trump was “talking about stealing” Syrian oil and warned that there will be “popular opposition and operations against the American occupiers”.

Shaaban also insisted that the regime will file a lawsuit to regain the fields.

Most of Syria’s oil and gas is in the northeast, controlled by Kurdish groups after the US-supported SDF, pushed out the Islamic State.

Having lost 75% of its GDP and under US and European Union sanctions because of its repression of the Syrian uprising, the Assad regime needs the energy resources to prop up its hold on power and to sustain Assad’s declaration that he will “regain every inch” of the country.

Pushing The “Money Lobbies” Conspiracy Theory

In early October, Trump accepted a cross-border Turkish offensive across two Kurdish cantons in the northeast and ordered the withdrawal of the 1,000 US troops in Syria.

The Pentagon, wanting to maintain a presence alongside the SDF, pushed back with the rationale of keeping oil from ISIS. The US military has been able to retain about 600 personnel in the northeast.

The Assad regime has had discussions with Kurdish groups about the future of the area, but the talks have made no progress amid Damascus’s refusal to accept Kurdish autonomy.

Needing Russian support for any push for the oil and gas fields, the regime has stepped up its rhetoric. Last month its UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja’afari insisted before the UN Security Council that the US is selling oil from the fields. Two weeks ago, Assad declared that the US Government was acting on behalf of “the money lobbies, whether in the form of oil, weapons, banks, or others”. And on Monday, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said the regime is facing a “methodical plundering” by the US.

See Iran Daily, Dec 20: Rouhani Pushes Conspiracy Theory “US to Control Syria’s Oil”

Shaaban asserted to NBC, “Our land should be totally and completely liberated from foreign occupiers, whether they are terrorists, or the Turks or the Americans.”

And she clung to the idea that Moscow and Beijing could provide the economic support to bolster Assad: “China is a big candidate [for reconstruction]….China has the money and the expertise and the friendship with us. And so has Russia.”