The Russian embassy in Washington pointed out to Colonel Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the US-led International Anti-Terrorist Coalition, that his interpretation of the presence of US troops in Syria runs counter to the relevant UN Security Council resolution.
Russian diplomats responded on the Embassy’s Twitter page to Marotto’s post on the same social network where he claimed that US troops in the northeastern Arab republic had a ‘clear mandate’ to be present ‘in accordance with international law – UNSCR 2254, adopted in December 2015’.
‘The fact is that US forces are in Syria illegally. Your interpretation of UNSCR 2254 is ridiculous. Please, read the document carefully’, the diplomatic mission said in a publication to which a link to the resolution on the UN official website is attached.
Most of the provinces of Hassakeh, Deir Ez Zor and Raqqa in the east and north-east of the country are now controlled by the US-backed Kurdish ‘Democratic Syrian Forces’. Since 2015, the US command has established nine military bases in this area. Four of them are near the oil fields in Deir Ez Zor and another five are in the neighboring province of Hassakeh, which is considered Syria’s breadbasket. In late 2019, then US President Donald Trump approved a plan to keep several hundred US troops in Syria, with one of their main tasks being to secure control of oil fields in the north-east east of the country.
Meanwhile, Damascus considers the US military presence as an occupation that is accompanied by the plundering of natural resources belonging to the Syrian people. As Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Vershinin said at an online meeting of the UN Security Council in march, the humanitarian situation was most dire in territories outside Damascus’s control, for which the countries actually occupying them were responsible. The Americans arrived in Syria without being invited by the authorities.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS