Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry

"The right to life of the Syrian people is being ruthlessly violated by the US," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday in response to Syrian state news agency's report of US looting more of the country's oil, noting that the banditry is seriously exacerbating the energy crisis and humanitarian disaster in Syria.

US occupation forces in Syria continued plundering the country's wealth and resources as they brought out a convoy consisting of 53 tankers on Saturday loaded with oil they looted bound for a US base in northern Iraq via al-Mahmoudiya illegitimate crossing, Syrian Arab News Agency reported. 

Wang commented on Tuesday that the US illegal plundering of Syria has become blatantly obvious, quoting official data from the Syrian government that in the first half of 2022, more than 80 percent of Syria's daily oil production was illegally smuggled by US forces.

According to media reports, the US forces and their mercenaries are stealing an average of 66,000 barrels of oil per day in Syria as the country's average daily oil production is estimated to have reached 80,000 barrels in the first half of 2022.

The Syrian oil ministry said in August last year in a statement that the US practices in Syria including its unlawful trafficking of Syrian oil have caused direct and indirect losses of about $107.1 billion to Syria's oil and gas sectors.

Earlier this month, the US forces looted higher quantities of Syrian oil and wheat via 60 tankers, delivering it to their bases in Iraq via illegitimate maritime crossing.

In such miserable situation lacking oil and food, the US robbery could only make this winter even colder for the Syrian people, Wang said. 

Greedy as the US is in stealing Syrian resources, it has been pretty "generous" in providing military aid to others, often in the billions or even tens of billions. 

Whether the US is to "take" or "give," the results are all the same - to plunge other countries into turmoil and disaster, thereby preserving US interests and hegemony, the spokesperson said. This is the reality of the so-called rule-based order of the US, Wang added. 

He urged the US to give the Syrian people and the international community an explanation for the oil theft, and to stop trampling on international suspicions and undermining international law.

The Syrian government has slammed the US' brazen robbery behavior repeatedly over an extended period. However, since the US retained a military presence in northeastern and eastern Syria since 2014, it has been transporting Syrian oil it stole to Iraq where they later sell it to Iraqi oil companies at a lower price and use the money to support the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and other opposition armed groups in Syria, experts noted. 

Global Times