Showing posts with label LOOTING SYRIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LOOTING SYRIA. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 August 2021

Dozens of US Tank Trucks Carrying Oil Spotted Leaving Syria for Iraq

 Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° 


This March 27, 2018 file photo shows Syrian workers fixing pipes of an oil well at an oil field controlled by a U.S-backed Kurdish group, in Rmeilan, Hassakeh province, Syria.

Tim Korso

Despite being deployed in Syria without the legal approval of Damascus or a UN Security Council mandate, the US has justified helping local militias extract and smuggle oil out of the country with the need to fund the Kurds and keep the crude out of the hands of remnants of Daesh.

A convoy consisting of 80 vehicles, including tank trucks carrying oil, was spotted leaving Syria via the US-controlled al-Walid border crossing with Iraq, the SANA news agency reported, citing local sources. The convoy was reportedly accompanied by several armoured US military vehicles of unspecified design.

Apart from the oil-carrying vehicles, the convoy also consisted of other trucks, including refrigerator ones. It is unclear what these trucks were carrying into Iraq.

In the past, Syrian media has reported on American troops smuggling not only crude, but also bags of wheat out of the country. On 5 August, SANA reported spotting another convoy of 25 oil-carrying vehicles moving through the same al-Walid border crossing into Iraq.

SANA has reported on multiple occasions about the efforts of US troops in smuggling the oil out of the country. The oil is extracted in Syria’s north-eastern provinces, controlled by the Kurdish SDF militia. Washington claims that its troops remain deployed in the oil-rich provinces to guard the crude from remnants of Daesh* and claims that all the proceeds from the oil sales go to the Kurds.

At the same time, American troops are in the country without legal grounds – they have not been invited by the government in Damascus, nor do they have a UN Security Council mandate. The Syrian government and its allies, Russia and Iran, have repeatedly slammed the US for keeping its troops deployed in the country illegally. Damascus and Moscow have also accused Washington of stealing Syria’s national recourses and demanded that they cease such activities, but to no avail.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Saturday, 17 July 2021

Biden Forces Smuggle Out 70 Vehicles Some Carrying Stolen Syrian Oil

  ARABI SOURI 

US Biden Forces Smuggle Out 70 Vehicles Some Loaded with Stolen Syrian Oil

Biden forces smuggled 70 vehicles out of Syria and into Iraq in the past 24 hours, some of the vehicles are tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil, the convoy of 2 columns passed through the illegal Al Walid crossing.

44 vehicles of oil tankers, refrigerated trucks, and troops carriers along with some moved from the Sweidiyah village near Yarubiya in the countryside of the Syrian northeastern Hasakah province, local sources told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), they added that the convoy left the Kharab Jir illegal military in the Malkiyah region near the Syrian borders with Iraq toward Iraq through the illegal Al Walid border crossing.

Later in the night, yesterday, the mercenary US military forces working for the ‘most inclusive and diversified’ junta of the White House moved out an additional 26 vehicles from the same area toward the Iraqi territories. These vehicles comprise loaded trucks covered to conceal their containers in addition to tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil.

Earlier on the 11th of this month, the Biden forces smuggled 24 trucks loaded with stolen Syrian wheat from the Tal Alo silos in addition to several other trucks whose containers were covered. The convoy also used the illegal Al Walid border crossing and headed to northern Iraq.

This latest theft, breach of international law, violation of the United Nations Charter, aggression against the sovereignty of the independent Syrian state, a founding member of the United Nation aimed to deprive the Syrian people of their food and fuel is just the continuation of the same policies followed by the consecutive US regimes not starting with George W. Bush who invaded Iraq on false claims that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, the invasion that continues through today, and ongoing with the demented Joe Biden and his diversified regime of war criminals in suites.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Biden Occupation Regime Criminally Brings more Weapons into Syria

  MIRI WOOD 

US American forces in Syria - Biden - Hasakah - Deir Ezzor - Raqqa - Archive

Biden invaders and occupation regime criminally entered Syria — again — on 12 July. This supremacist convoy contained 37 trucks “loaded with weapons and ammunition” and logistical equipment, along with “three trailers carrying new armored military vehicles and eight other trailers loaded with huge camouflaged boxes” and three four-wheeled cars equipped with machine guns.”

The criminal US military convoy came in through the illegitimate al Walid crossing from Iraq, part of the ”autonomous zone” that voted against being an independent country, a couple of years ago.

For NATO colonialists among our readers, we return to our friends, the maps. The first one shows the location of both Syria and the US; the second, the location of al Walid, Hasaka governate, which is in Syria, which is not in the United States.


Biden imperial US again helping to destroy Syrian water supply.

This map clearly shows that Syria is not part of the US.
Arrow shows al Walid crossing, which the Biden regime uses illegally.

When not criminally using the al Walid crossing, the Biden regime forces — American illegals — criminally use the al Yaaruibayah crossing from that (Kurdish) autonomous region in Iraq, that would collapse without the US and other NATO criminals holding it up; sometimes the American illegals switch them up, using one for Biden continuing Trump’s oil and grains stealing, and the other for criminally bringing NATO weapons into the Levantine republic.

As H.E. Bassam Sabbagh has mentioned to the NATO junta ruling the UNSC, Biden forces illegal enter the SAR with the aplomb of traveling between New York and New Jersey.


Biden regime also criminally uses the al Yaarubiyah crossing.

At this time, the only difference between the Trump and Biden regimes in Syria is that the latter has not yet torched any wheat field, he only stole wheat from the Syrian wheat silos.


Joseph Biden inaugural ceremonies

On 7 July the supremacist Biden regime convoy was a bit larger, with 44 US occupation vehicles bringing in oil tankers, refrigerated tankers, trailers carrying ”bulldozers for the aim of reinforcing the occupation’s bases” in Syria, which is not in the US, as we have noted in the map, above.

While stenographer journalists are all aflutter over the US fake leaving Afghanistan, they have made no comments about our criminals remaining in Syria, a breach of both international law, and the noble UN Charter, both of which are ignored by NATO supremacists. The increase in the criminal American military fortification appears to be related to the ongoing bombings of the Biden illegals, by the resistance groups (akin to true anti-fascist partisan underground operations when civilized human beings were trying to rid their homelands of actual fascists and assorted occupiers, in Europe and in Libya — where Omar Mukhtar led the resistance against fascist Mussolini’s Quarta Sponda occupiers.).


Banned in Italy, 1982, lest Italians be reminded that they were once under fascist dictatorship.
Banned in Italy, 1982, lest Italians be reminded that they were once under fascist dictatorship.

The resistance has been busy since soon after 28 June, when the Biden regime criminals bombed both Syria and Iraq from within Syria (both Operation Mockingbird leftist success stories — bleating daily about racism — and the rightwingers who see no racism, are aligned in support of these colonial, supremacist war crimes).

Immediately, the resistance bombed back the Biden occupiers. The Syrian resistance even celebrated the Fourth of July by bombing Biden occupiers in Deir Ezzor.

The resistance continues to celebrate America’s independence day with ongoing bombings of the Biden regime occupiers.

One other difference between the Trump and Biden regimes: Trump claimed US troops in Iraq bombed by resistance groups after the Soleimani assassination had some ”headaches,” while the Biden-Dr. Jill-Harris-Nance-Pentagon collective presidency claims zero casualties.

— Miri Wood

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Monday, 5 July 2021

Inclusive Biden Junta Smuggles Additional 37 Oil Tankers Stolen from Syria

  ARABI SOURI 

US forces steal Syrian oil in Hasakah northeast Syria - Iraq - Kurds - SDF

Biden’s junta, the most inclusive and colorful regime in the history of the USA, accelerates plundering of the riches of the Syrian people while flooding the media with statements of their care for the Syrian people while depriving the Syrians of their oil in order to feed ISIS terrorists in Iraq.

The latest convoy of 37 tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil was spotted by the locals in the Suweidia village in the northern countryside of Al-Yarubiya area, the convoy was heading toward the borders with Iraq through the illegal crossing of the Al-Walid.

In addition to the oil tankers, the convoy included refrigerated lorries and trucks loaded with large sealed boxes.

The following video, and the featured image still taken from it, published by Sputnik News shows oil tankers stolen by Biden forces 3 months ago:

Terrorists of the US-sponsored Kurdish SDF separatist armed group were guarding the convoy in several 4 x 4 machine guns mounted vehicles.

This ongoing theft of Syrian riches continues at times the Syrian people face extreme shortages of oil, wheat, and produce all over the country where more than 16.5 million people live, the theft is increasing at the same time the US and other NATO officials continue their anti-Syria propaganda to allow the opening of more border crossings under the UN protection to facilitate the smuggling of terrorists and weapons in, and the stolen Syrian oil, grains, and other produce out of the country.

Prior to the beginning of the US-led war of terror waged against Syria, the country was self-sufficient in oil and wheat, there were even exports of the excesses of these two main essentials, and ever since the US officials started their anti-Syria propaganda to allow open borders only in areas under the control of terrorist groups like Idlib, the country started importing both oil and wheat and the same US regime tried to pirate oil shipments heading to Syria and blocked the access of Syria’s banking system to international markets to facilitate the imports of these items.

It is hypocrisy at its peak by the most degenerate criminals no matter which of the only two parties who run it is in power, they only compete on spoils of the wars they wage abroad and against their own people in high taxation and poor services and development.

A group of Syria’s legal advisors and the country’s public judiciary body are recording the US theft of Syria’s oil, wheat, grains, and other riches, among other war crimes committed by the USA and its allies in Syria, and have prepared a file to sue the United States and its cronies, the outcomes of these lawsuits will ensure that US citizens and dutiful taxpayers funding now the US crimes will pay the reparations for all the souls killed, the people suffered, the infrastructure destroyed, and the riches stolen.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Friday, 25 June 2021

Syria is suffering a devastating wheat shortage the media claim is due to drought – but the truth is a lot


Syria is suffering a devastating wheat shortage the media claim is due to drought – but the truth is a lot more complicated
Eva Bartlett

-by Eva K Bartlett

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years). Follow her on Twitter @EvaKBartlett23 Jun, 2021 18:01

June 23, 2021, RT.com

Syria is back in the news again. This time, it’s not about hospitals allegedly being bombed, but a drought devastating Syria’s wheat harvest. But there’s a lot more to the story than a simple ‘Act of God’.

A recent article on Reuters would have readers believe the current Syrian wheat shortage mainly due to drought. The article makes a passing reference to the crippling Western sanctions choking Syrians, but doesn’t emphasize how those sanctions contribute to the wheat shortage, as well as the fuel shortage, massive hyperinflation, and an all-round worsening of Syrian lives. 

On June 16, Prensa Latina reported on wheat theft by US occupation forces noting, “a convoy of 32 trucks and containers loaded with looted wheat left for Iraq… The column was guarded by vehicles of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (FDS).” 

Corporate media en masse is a criminal entity with zero integrity. It operates to protect power & to start & maintain wars, it is more than “state media” it is a homogenized narrative management cartel, offering PR for war. This article never mentions FUKUS economic terrorism or pic.twitter.com/VPlet3glzU— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) June 22, 2021

theft of wheat and barley by US Coalition contra forces across Syria, nor does it mention deliberate burning of crops by Trump administration. Again, we have the reductionism of human suffering inflicted by neocolonialist regimes led by UK & US. Disgusting.— vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) June 22, 2021

There are a host of other factors that have plagued Syria’s crops in recent years, largely ignored in Western reporting. 

In May last year, Syrian state media, citing civilian sources in southern Hasaka (northeastern Syria), reported,“a US Apache helicopter dropped a number of thermal balloons while flying close to the ground, setting a number of fires and burning more than 200 dunums (200,000 square metres) of wheat fields in Adla village, in Shaddadi countryside.” 

In June, Syria’s then-Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, spoke of “thousands of hectares of wheat fields” set ablaze, and further noted the US’ theft of Syrian oil, cotton and sheep. 

And, as I wrote“Civilians from affected areas near Turkish occupation posts likewise blame Turkish forces for setting fires and firing live ammunition upon those who attempt to extinguish the fires, farmers literally watching their livelihoods go up in flames. The Hasakah Agriculture Directorate director likewise blames Turkey for arson of the crops.” 

In July 2020, British journalist Vanessa Beeley wrote of the crop fires and the US economic war against Syria, noting: 

“According to estimates, 130,000 hectares of wheat and 180,000 hectares of barley have been destroyed by these fires to date.

At the same time, Turkey is reported to be forcing Syrian farmers to sell their wheat to Turkey in exchange for Turkish currency and US-backed Kurdish contras have restricted the sale of wheat to Damascus and are stockpiling reserves in areas they control, which account for an estimated 70 percent of total Syrian wheat production.”

The year prior, 85,000 hectares were burned. 

In June 2019, Reuters reported that even the UN admitted the possibility that terrorists had set fire to wheat crops, although it also pushed the line that “both sides” were accused of having done so. This is an utterly illogical claim, just as illogical as the claims of the government starving its people in AleppoMadaya, and in Ghouta, etc. – as I learned by going to those areas and speaking with civilians – turned out to be lies, obfuscating the terrorism of ‘rebel’ groups occupying those areas. 

DID THE GOVERNMENT IGNORE THE DROUGHTS? 

Critics of the Syrian government claim that it did not address the issue of droughts seriously. But is that true? 

Writer Louis Allday, in 2015, wrote of his 2009 experience as a research intern at the British Embassy in Damascus. He spoke of a UN briefing he attended in Damascus in July that year, saying that the UN Drought Joint Needs Assessment Mission (JNA) “praised the response of the Syrian Government more than once,” and, “summarised the measures that the government had already taken, these included the following: 

  • A food assistance programme that was supplementing the World Food Program’s efforts. 27,000-30,000 families were guaranteed support until December 2009.
  • Livestock feed had been subsidised.
  • Outstanding loans of farmers had been re-scheduled and micro-credit loans offered to them.
  • New teachers had been hired for affected regions.
  • Establishment of a government fund specifically for agricultural subsidies and support.”

Allday wrote of Syrian government representatives who had “openly asked for financial assistance (both short- and long-term) from international donors and stated that the Syrian Government’s efforts alone would not be sufficient to cope.” 

He finished by stressing that such attempts to claim the Syrian government had ignored drought issues was “at best, an unfair and inaccurate simplification of how the Syrian Government actually responded to the drought. At worst, it is an intentional and dishonest attempt to obscure the government’s evident attempts to solve the crisis and mitigate its impact.” 

In May 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) offered further nuance. It noted that, aside from drought, “high costs of inputs hinder agricultural activities.” 

The FAO reported that “the high cost of fuel and its widespread shortage have constrained the use of irrigation, especially during the crucial development stages for the wheat crop in the spring.

Increases in transportation costs hamper marketing activities. High production costs may also induce farmers to not harvest the entire area planted with cereals and lease out the fields for grazing, usually by sheep and goats, whose owners remain under pressure from high feed prices. Leasing out the fields is likely, particularly in the rainfed areas where expected yields are lower.” 

The report spoke of Syria’s economic crisis increasing production costs and hampering “the access of farmers to agricultural inputs, which are mostly imported.”  

In June 2019, I met with a representative from Syria’s Ministry of Agriculture to discuss wheat and other agricultural issues. I was later emailed a report, ‘Reality of Wheat Production and Marketing up to 17/6/2019’, which noted some other reasons for poor crop production, including: 

  • Damage caused to state-run irrigation networks in some provinces and regions.
  • Shortage of power supplier equipment due to unilateral coercive measures imposed by some Western countries.
  • The tendency to grow barley at the expense of growing rain-fed and irrigated wheat, due to the low cost of barley cultivation.

In a September 2020 article, Beeley also noted the difficulty of fighting fires in Syria, noting that the Syrian Civil Defence is using badly outdated equipment in need of maintenance. 

“Equipment is maintained by local engineers who do their best to repair and restore machinery which is old and tired. Much of their equipment was stolen by the terrorist groups and the White Helmets when they invaded and occupied areas of Syria from 2011 onwards.

“Under the sanction regime imposed by the US Coalition, it has been impossible for the authentic Syria Civil Defence to replace the stolen equipment.” 

While negating these various factors, and only in passing mentioning the sanctions, Reuters’ report was actually fairer than most others in recent years on issues of drought and wheat. Most outright blame the ‘Assad regime’ for a wheat and bread crisis, with no mention of the above considerations. 

However, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), (which never misses an opportunity to blame Syria!), the wheat and bread shortage is due to “bakeries destroyed” and “discriminatory policies” but none of the host of reasons I’ve listed! 

For their report, in addition to collecting information online, HRW noted they spoke to (a whopping!) “10 residents in government-held Syria.” Wow, definitive!

Regarding the discrimination claim: the report’s authors claim there are separate bread lines for members of the military and members of the public. But in my many experiences in Syria, walking past the bakeries providing the ridiculously inexpensive bread, among the long lines of people waiting I’ve seen civilians and soldiers in the same queues. 

On the note of subsidized bread, remind me when HRW’s America offered that to its impoverished citizens. I won’t hold my breath… 

Accusing Syria of depriving civilians of bread is an old theme. Last year, when a curfew was briefly implemented in Syria, an Istanbul-based war propagandist took to Twitter to claim that the government wasn’t providing subsidized bread. 

So, being in Damascus, I started documenting volunteers (often Ba’ath Party) distributing bread door-to-door in districts around the city. And for the sake of getting a wider scope on the situation, I asked friends in other provinces.

Volunteers distributing bread to homes, 50 SYP/bag of 7 pieces. pic.twitter.com/1m4ysOwFrb— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) April 3, 2020

That the media continue to push illogical lies about Syria, ten years on, is unsurprising. The bottom line, once again, is that those screaming that Assad is the reason for these crises don’t actually care about Syrians and actively avoid the truth for the sake of their own twisted narrative. 

As I wrote recently, “If America truly wanted to alleviate the suffering of Syrians, all sanctions against the country and people would be immediately lifted.” 

RELATED LINKS:

A Western-backed war couldn’t destroy Syria, now sanctions are starving its people

America’s Scorched Earth Policy Ensures Food Insecurity

Wildfires Rage Across Syria in Wake of Increased US-Led Economic Warfare

Western nations want ‘democracy’ in Syria so badly they close embassies and prevent Syrians from voting in presidential elections

Syrians filled the polling stations to defend their sovereignty and now fill the streets to celebrate the result

It’s 10 years since the war in Syria began, and Western media & pundits are still eager to keep it going

Western media quick to accuse Syria of ‘bombing hospitals’ – but when TERRORISTS really destroy Syrian hospitals, they are silent

This outstanding report from Syria by Eva Bartlett penetrates the ‘iron dome’ of Western propaganda, also known as news.
It is about a chemical attack that never happened in a country attacked, subverted and blockaded in your name.https://t.co/AX1Zwbg0g0— John Pilger (@johnpilger) May 27, 2021


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Syrians in Farfarah Village Expel US Oil Thieves Army and their SDF Militia

  ARABI SOURI  

Syrians in Farfarah village kick out US oil thieves and their Kurdish SDF proxies

Syrians in the village of Farfarah confronted and expelled a convoy of US oil thieves along with their Kurdish SDF armed terrorists from their village earlier today, Tuesday 15 June 2021.

The people of Farfarah, a small town in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah, blocked a convoy of 4 armored US vehicles packed with oil thieves of the US army accompanied by a vehicle carrying Kurdish SDF armed terrorists that tried to pass through their village.

A video filmed by one of the men in the village shows the brave confrontation between the unarmed residents facing heavily armed US Army and Kurdish SDF terrorists and forcing them to leave, SANA said some of the US vehicles were damaged when the villagers rained it with stones.

The video is also on  Bitchute.

In the video the people who expelled the US Army shouting at them to leave their village: ‘You stole our oil, you stole our wheat, get out, yalla (move it).. Also telling them: ‘there’s no oil in our village, get out’.

Farfarah is a tiny town of brave Syrians who stood up to the army of one of the world’s superpowers, another example from Syria how the people do not welcome oil thieves and do not welcome the US-styled democracy of hegemony, oppression, and wealth plundering.

Many similar incidents occurred in the same region most notably when a convoy of US oil thieves working for Trump last year tried to go through the town of Khirbet Ammo in February of last year, the villagers blocked the convoy, threw stones and garbage cans against the oil thieves of the US Army who in return shot dead a child in the village.

The most inclusive and diverse junta of Joseph Biden continued the same policies of the disgraced Trump in beefing up their forces illegally deployed in Syria, supporting the terrorist groups of ISIS, Nusra Front, and the separatist Kurdish SDF, and increased the stealing of Syrian wheat and oil.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Saturday, 5 June 2021

The suggestion Turkey was smuggling weapons to Al-Qaeda in Syria shows why Russia’s desire to halt ‘aid’ was a good idea


moi

June 4, 2021, RT.com

-by Eva K Bartlett

New allegations that aid trucks to Syria from Turkey carried weapons for terrorists have surfaced. But it’s unlikely to convince those in the West to change their tune that Russia was wrong to want border crossings closed. 

In July 2020, there were those who self-righteously railed at Russia for allegedly denying humanitarian aid to Syrians. They screamed that in calling for crossings to be closed, Russia was attempting to starve and choke civilians in need of assistance. 

The Russian mission to the UN, however, maintains that ample aid is delivered from within Syria, via various agencies, including the UN. It argues that delivering aid from outside of Syria is no longer necessary, since most of the country has returned to peace and security. I haven’t come across a Russian representative who has stated so, but wonder if another reason Russia wanted cross-border ‘aid’ from Turkey halted was because it knew weapons were being smuggled to terrorists in Syria? 

On May 30, Sedat Peker, a Turkish mobster and former ally to Turkish President Recep Erdogan, published a new video in a series he has been releasing on criminal activities among Erdogan’s inner circle. In this latest video, Peker spoke of the weapons and vehicles sent to Al-Qaeda in Syria, and that the contractor behind these shipments was a company called SADAT, run by Erdogan’s former chief military advisor.

Turkish mobster Sedat Peker, former ally to President #Erdogan, revealed he shipped arms, military supplies, drones, vehicles to al-Nusra front in #Syria at the request of #Sadat, Turkish contractor run by Erdogan’s former chief military advisor Adnan Tanriverdi. pic.twitter.com/AdqUxSyVVO— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) May 30, 2021

Our trucks went under the name of Sedat Peker Aid Convoy. We knew other trucks that went on my behalf carried weapons. This was organized by a team within SADAT. No registration, no paperwork applied to these shipments that crossed directly [to Syria],” said Peker.

The revelations should not come as a surprise. In January 2013, the late journalist Serena Shim, as I wrote, exposed how terrorists and arms were smuggled into Syria from Turkey, noting World Food Organization trucks were being used. In October 2014, Shim was killed in a car accident, shortly after telling Press TV she feared for her life and that Turkish intelligence had accused her of being a spy. Her family, and inquiring journalists, believed it was down to Turkish foul play, noting the official story of Shim’s death changing. The US government didn’t investigate the suspicious death of one of its citizens in Turkey. 

As Shim reported, if WFO trucks were at one point used to smuggle arms into Syria, can you blame Russia or Syria if they are indeed sceptical of supposed ‘aid’ entering from Turkey?

But whenever the issue of aid crossing into Syria is brought up at the UN Security Council, the narrative is usually to ‘blame Russia’. Hysterical headlines aside, is it really likely that Russia, with the world’s eyes on its every move, is actually trying to starve civilians in Syria? It is Russia, remember, that has demined vast areas of Syria formerly occupied by terrorist factions in order for local people to be able to return to their areas. It is also Russia that delivered aid to Raqqa, the city completely flattened by the US and allies in the pretext of fighting terrorism. 

Syria’s cross-border mechanism (CBM) began in 2014, when – due to the presence of terrorist groups – aid couldn’t be delivered from within the country. The Security Council established the CBM, with four crossings into Syria: two from Turkey, one from Iraq, the last from Jordan. In December 2019, all except the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey were closed down, with aid being coordinated via Damascus. 

But as Russian representatives at the UN pointed out in a statement in July 2020, by then the situation had changed, with most of Syria back under the control of the government. Sending aid to those who need it can be done from within the country. Western media suggested that Syria would use the closure of crossings to starve its civilians, but the reality is that Damascus has consistently cooperated in sending aid, while the US has in the past stymied aid delivery. 

Russia’s statement also noted, “The UN still has no presence in Idlib de-escalation zone which is controlled by international terrorists and fighters. It’s not a secret that the terrorist groups control certain areas of the de-escalation zone and use the UN humanitarian aid as a tool to exert pressure on [the] civil population and openly make profit from such deliveries.”

But amid a round of finger pointing, the West and allies continued to criticise Russia for wanting to end the CBM. In response, the Russian Federation’s representative to the UN Security Council wondered whether the UN’s OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) could go to Idlib to see if terrorists occupying that region were respecting the Declaration of Commitment some had signed regarding aid deliveries. 

This was a valid point, given that in areas previously occupied by terrorists, most civilians never saw the ample aid sent in by Syria and agencies. Terrorist groups controlled and hoarded the aid, from east Aleppo to Madaya to al-Waer, to eastern Ghouta. So it was by no means a stretch of the imagination to assume the same might play out in Idlib, particularly since the terrorists included factions from the aforementioned regions, who were bussed to Idlib as the cities and towns finally returned to peace. 

The Russian statement also addressed frenzied Western claims that the other closed crossings were the only means to send aid to civilians in the north-east of Syria. It read“In total, since the beginning of 2020 when ‘Al Yarubiyah’ was closed, more humanitarian aid has been delivered to the north-east of Syria than in previous years.” 

Still the narrative continued, though, and in March 2021, the dictator of Human Rights Watch, Ken Roth, tweeted about “Putin starving Syria”, resurrecting the cries over the unnecessary, and closed, crossings. But his claim prompted an angry response from some.

🇷🇺

So who is actually starving civilians in Syria? Aside from terrorists hoarding food and denying it to the local people, there are more significant reasons for their preventable suffering. And these are the West’s sanctions against them, particularly the June 2020 Caesar Act. 

Last year, James Jeffrey, the then US Special Representative for Syria Engagement, was quoted as saying the latest sanctions would contribute to the fall of the Syrian pound. What a wonderful way to “protect” Syrians. In US parlance, “protect” means “starve.”

As I walk around Damascus, I ask about the cost of food, and whether people can afford to feed their families. Most say their salaries aren’t sufficient: food prices have skyrocketed, salaries have not. Most describe adopting a more vegetarian diet – chicken and meats are too expensive to have more than once a month, or at all. 

Furthermore, there is the US occupation forces’ thieving or destroying of Syrian resources. On that, Dr. Bashar Ja’afari, in his former post as Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, in June 2020, said“When the United States daily steals 200,000 barrels of oil from the Syrian oil fields, 400,000 tons of cotton, 5,000,000 sheep and sets fire to thousands of hectares of wheat fields, and deliberately weakens the value of the Syrian pound, and when it imposes coercive economic measures aiming to choke the Syrian people and occupying parts of the Syrian lands, and when the US representative expresses her concern over the deteriorating situation of the Syrian citizen’s living conditions the logical question will be are not these acts the symptoms of political schizophrenia?”

But as usual the US and its allies blame Russia and Syria for the suffering in Syria, whitewashing their own very long litany of crimes there. 

Although the smuggling of weapons and terrorists via Turkey has been openly known for years, it’s rather amusing that it takes a petty mobster, and not Western media or leadership, to draw new attention to it. No, as terrorists use those weapons to fight the Syrian government (and rival terrorist factions, and civilians), the West is only concerned about blaming Russia and Syria. Ten years of lies and war against the people of Syria just aren’t enough for America and its allies.

Previous Articles:

Syrians filled the polling stations to defend their sovereignty and now fill the streets to celebrate the result

Today I saw Syrians dancing and celebrating life, and a return to peace – but, of course, the Western media won’t report that

Western nations want ‘democracy’ in Syria so badly they close embassies and prevent Syrians from voting in presidential elections

Douma: Three Years On, How independent media shot down the false “chemical attack” narrative.

It’s 10 years since the war in Syria began, and Western media & pundits are still eager to keep it going

American Journalist Killed in Turkey for Revealing the Truth Regarding ISIS-Daesh: No Investigation Two Years After Suspicious Death of American Journalist Serena Shim


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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