Trump Claiming Oil Fields Draws Criticism: Looting Syria’s Natural Resources a ‘War Crime’
President Donald Trump is drawing sharp criticism for comments made about Syrian oil fields during an address to the nation Sunday morning in which he announced the capture and killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“Where Lindsey and I totally agree is the oil,” the commander in chief said, adding “the oil is, you know, so valuable for many reasons.” He followed by listing the reasons why, noting that primarily, the Syrian oil “fueled ISIS,” and secondly, “it helps the Kurds.”
But it was his third reason that raised eyebrows when Trump said “it can help us.”
“We should be able to take some also, and what I intend to do perhaps is make a deal with an Exxon Mobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly,” Trump noted about how he intends to take Syrian oil for the benefit of the United States and its companies.
As many noted, however, this appears to be out of alignment with the Geneva Conventions and US law. And some even go so far as to call it a “war crime”:
Trump flat out says “We should be able to take some” oil, talks about sending a big American oil company to go in and refine.
Holy cow.
— Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) October 27, 2019
.@realDonaldTrump is stepping on his own message by talking about letting US companies extract Syria’s oil.
Looting another country’s natural resources would be a war crime.
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 27, 2019
Trump’s “keep the oil” position is not about the Kurds or establishing some sort of international trust to fund post-conflict reconstruction efforts. He’s talking about the US and US companies profiting, which would violate Geneva Conventions and US law: https://t.co/8XiKJeSbb0 https://t.co/TsmpaGngmm
— Kimberly Atkins (@KimberlyEAtkins) October 27, 2019
Now President Trump is rambling on about US stealing oil.
— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) October 27, 2019
Just to be clear: despite Trump’s statements, oil in Syria does not belong to the United States or to Donald Trump. Plundering oil, as Trump seems to be suggesting, would be a violation of international law and could amount to a war crime.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) October 27, 2019
And just like that, what began as fairly powerful announcement after a momentous event has gone off piste “if they’re going into Iraq- keep the oil” #Trump #Baghdadi
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) October 27, 2019
Trump says he’ll keep US troops in place to “protect oil” for Exxon — but still wants to leave brave #Kurds to the mercy of Assad, Putin and Erdogan. Bizarre and awful.
— Joe Conason (@JoeConason) October 27, 2019
1st country Trump thanks was Russia. Then Trump says Russia wants our troops there because we’re fighting ISIS. Then he says the troop pullout won’t hurt fight against ISIS. Then he says ISIS is not a threat because they “can’t walk to our country.” But we’re going to get the oil
— James Miller (@Millermena) October 27, 2019
Trump saying that we were doing this to get Syria’s oil is really something
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) October 27, 2019
An ironic chain of events:
– GWB invades Iraq, says it’s to help Iraqis as critics say it’s about oil
– Trump runs and claims (falsely) he always opposed Iraq invasion but also says we should have taken oil
– Trump leaves Syria then comes back, straight up says its about oil
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) October 27, 2019
Watch above via CBS News.
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