Sunday, January 26, 2020

Is Trump Trying to Grab Syria's Oil?


In recent remarks Donald Trump has hinted he wants control of Syria's oil. Coming from a guy who has repeatedly lamented that the US didn't just take Iraq's oil a move on Syria's oil can't be taken lightly.

Over the past eight days, four Russian attempts to get to Syria's oil fields have been blocked by US forces.

In the latest confrontation, a Russian column was stopped by US soldiers in ten armoured vehicles. The Russian military responded by trying to send a helicopter. It was intercepted and forced to land by two American helicopters.

US Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, has confirmed that the US force is deployed to prevent either Assad's government or its Russian allies from taking control of the oil fields.

4 comments:

Trailblazer said...

As with Iraq, sooner or later the local government will try and forcibly establish its own authority.

Iraq oil Syrian oil perhaps Iran is next.

As time goes by the more I'm convinced that the US fracking bonanza is not what it seems.

The US is treading on many toes at this moment someone is about to say ouch, get off my foot.


TB

Anonymous said...

“We’re keeping the oil” is a ‘hint’?

Northern PoV said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Northern PoV said...

I wish blogger had an edit comment feature.

Syria has relatively small reserves. tRump is likely oblivious to that fact but his cronies let him think whatever he wants while they get their work done. In this case they've worked to deny the resource to Assad/Russia so as to continue the chaos.

This from https://www.juancole.com is interesting.
Be careful what we wish for eh?

"A Pence Presidency and an Iran War?
Why does John Bolton really want Trump Out?"
"Bolton and Pence are much more in sync than Bolton and Trump. Pence might well take a militarily more aggressive stance against Iran, whereas Trump steps back from the brink of all-out conflict. The very idea would make Bolton’s mouth water so much his mustache would wilt.
Mind you, Trump is fostering war with Iran by his policy of economically blockading it, and is a very dangerous man. But arguably Pence could be more dangerous if he could get in power."