Israel buying cheap oil from US-backed Kurdish militants in northeast Syria: Report

  Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Friday that the oil wells, which were previously controlled by the Syrian government, have turned into a source of income by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of mainly Kurdish forces fighting against Damascus. The US-backed SDF militants in northeastern Syria protect the security interests of the Zionist regime, the report added. It estimated that the Kurdish militants - with the help of less than 1,000 American troops - control a quarter of Syrian territory. Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the Arab country. Syrian government forces have retaken many areas once controlled by the terror outfits and are pressing ahead with their fight against the militants in their last bastions in the northwestern province of Idlib and areas in the neighboring Aleppo province. The Israeli report said that the start of the Syria crisis gave Israel an opportunity to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but the regime missed the chance. In addition to Israel, the US has been looting Syrian oil under a deal signed with the US-backed SDF without authorization from Damascus. Former Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari said last year that the Delaware-based Delta Crescent Energy company had “entered into a contract with the SDF with the aim of stealing Syrian oil and depriving the Syrian state and Syrian people of the basic revenues necessary to improve the humanitarian situation, provide for livelihood needs and reconstruction.” Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Bassam Tomeh, said on March 18 that the US and its allied Takfiri terrorist groups are looting oil reserves in the war-stricken Arab country, revealing that Washington controls 90 percent of crude reserves in oil-rich northeastern Syria. Tomeh said the cost of direct and indirect damage to the Syrian oil sector stands at more than $92 billion. Press TV’s website