Syria calls on European Parliament to condemn “US looting of its resources”

The Syrian Parliament said in a statement on Sunday that the European Parliament’s June report includes “inaccuracies and distortions of facts” seeking to justify the policies of certain Western governments, which harm the interests of the Syrian nation.

“If the European Parliament wants to be objective in its humanitarian perspective, it should condemn the illegal plundering of Syria’s energy resources and agricultural wealth by US military forces,” it added.

Since 2014, the US has deployed forces and military equipment in Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate under the pretext of fighting the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

The US military is illegally occupying Syria with nearly 1,000 troops and has seized the country’s oil fields in cooperation with local anti-Damascus militants and terrorist groups while stealing its crude supplies and wheat and transferring them across the border to its bases in Iraq.

The parliament went on to refer to the catastrophic impacts of sanctions imposed unilaterally by Western governments on Syria in various sectors including education, healthcare, water services, and transportation.

“Such measures violate international law and the United Nations Charter,” it added.

It said that the so-called exemptions and exceptions from these sanctions under the pretext of humanitarian purposes are nothing but “lip service” and have no apparent effect.

Even the six-month sanctions exemption adopted in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck the Turkey-Syria border region in late February has not been implemented, and humanitarian organizations, as well as donor states, have not provided disaster relief to Syria yet, the parliament maintained.

It called on the European Parliament to adopt a new approach consistent with international law and humanitarian principles, demanding pressure on the bloc to immediately and unconditionally lift all forms of sanctions slapped against Syrians.

The EU claimed in its June report that it provides humanitarian, development, economic, and stabilization assistance to the Syrian population in compliance with international law, the principles of impartiality, neutrality, and non-discrimination.

It further claimed that the Syrian government has politicized and instrumentalized humanitarian aid by repeatedly obstructing, impeding, and diverting assistance.

Syria has been targeted by US-led sanctions since 1979. Washington and its Western allies particularly tightened their economic sanctions and restrictions on Damascus after 2011, when the Arab country found itself in the grip of rampant foreign-backed militancy and terrorism.

The sanctions intensified even further with the passing of the Caesar Act in 2019, which targeted any individual and business that participated either directly or indirectly in Syria’s reconstruction efforts.