Lavrov: U.S. Creating Kurdish Quasi-State in Syria

MOSCOW (KI) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that the U.S. is “creating a Kurdish quasi-state” in Syria.

He spoke at a news conference here and said he briefed his Tunisian counterpart, Nabil Ammar, at a meeting Tuesday about the work that Russia, Turkiye and Iran are carrying out within the framework of the Astana format to promote Syrian settlement.
“We emphasized the continuing serious problems in the economy of the Syrian Arab Republic due to total illegitimate Western sanctions, and also because the U.S., creating a Kurdish quasi-state on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, are smuggling the Syrian oil and the Syrian grain,” he said.
Lavrov said he discussed Palestinian-Israeli settlement with Ammar and indicated that, without finding a solution to the conflict, it will be difficult to achieve “long-term improvement of the situation in the entire Middle East region.”
Moscow wants to strengthen ties with Tunis, including through expanding economic ties, said Lavrov, who noted that the trade turnover reached $1.2 billion.
“We have separately focused on the prospects of organizing purchases of Russian grain. The first batch has already been delivered to Tunisia,” he said.
Earlier this month, senior U.S. officials visited Syria’s eastern oil-rich Dayr al-Zawr province in an attempt to defuse an uprising by Arab tribes against Kurdish rule.
An Arab tribal backlash against the rule of the Kurdish YPG militia has led to clashes, with over 150 killed and dozens injured. The militia forms the backbone of the U.S.-backed SDF militants, and the uprising is the biggest threat to their rule.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Syria Ethan Goldrich and Major General Joel B Vowell met Arab tribal leaders and SDF commanders and agreed to “address local grievances” and “de-escalate violence as soon as possible and avoid casualties”, the State Department said.
Arab tribal fighters initially drove out the Kurdish-led forces from several large towns but the SDF has begun to regain the upper hand.
Arab tribal leaders say they have been deprived of their oil wealth after the Kurdish-led forces laid their hands on Syria’s biggest oil wells after the departure of Daesh. They also complain their areas are neglected in favor of Kurdish-majority areas.
“We want them out of all of Dayr al-Zawr, we want the administration of the area in the hands of the original Arab inhabitants,” said Sheikh Mahmoud al-Jarallah, a tribal leader.
U.S. occupation troops frequently smuggle crude oil from Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province to its bases located in northern Iraq using tanker trucks.
The U.S. military loots Syria’s oilfields, accompanied by SDF militants, without the approval of the Syrian government. This is considered illegal under international law.
The Syrian government of President Bashar Assad in Damascus sees the Kurdish-led forces as secessionist fighters and has denounced their alliance with the United States and their self-ruled enclave in eastern Syria.
On Monday, the militants imposed a curfew after clashes erupted again. Reports said they imposed the open-ended measure in several towns, including Ziban, close to the Iraqi border where the Americans are based.
Hundreds of U.S. troops have been there since 2015. The oil-rich province is home to Syria’s largest oil fields.
Al Mayadeen, a pan-Arab TV station, said several SDF fighters were killed after Arab gunmen took over several parts of Ziban on Monday. Local media in the province reported that some Kurdish fighters had fled the area as the clashes intensified.