Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused the United States of selling the oil it has stolen from his country to Ankara.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump noted that despite troop withdrawals from Syria, US forces would stay in the Middle Eastern country to “keep the oil”, causing an uproar, as it contradicts international laws against pillaging.

According to Assad, several thousand American troops, including staff from private companies, have at present occupied vast territories in Syria.

“The US relies heavily on private military companies akin to Blackwater in this war. So even if they have several hundred American soldiers in Syria, they still have several thousand – maybe even tens of thousands of civilians working for these PMCs and fighting in Syria. Therefore, the exact figure is difficult to establish, but it is definitely several thousand people”, Assad said.

In 2011, Syria’s oil output amounted to about 375,000 barrels per day, however, production has dropped dramatically since then due to the war.

The situation became even worse when Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group] captured a part of eastern Syria, where about three-quarters of its oil reserves are concentrated, using the revenues from the sale of oil to fuel their campaign.

Source: Sputnik