On October 28, 2022, John Kirby, the Coordinator of Strategic Communications for the United State’s National Security Council, announced that the US has no plans to relax the Caesar Act sanctions against Syria nor to pull out its occupying troops from the country.
The US Congress previously passed the sanctions against Syria in 2019. The sanctions target any business, individual, and state with close ties to the Syrian government.
In a way to rationalize the US’s military presence in Syria, Kirby declared that “only a thousand American soldiers” were stationed in Syria. Kirby added that the US’s mission was centered on fighting ISIS.
Kirby also asserted that the US does not want to change “the balance of power” in Syria, indicating that it has given up on its regime change policy against Syria. However, a report at The Cradle noted that the US continues to back and arm militant groups in Syria, such as “the CIA-trained, anti-government Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT) faction, which holds positions within the Al-Tanf base.”
In September, a Russian official asserted that MaT was planning a false flag operation against civilians that would later be blamed on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
The Cradle report observed that while the US ostensibly claims to be fighting ISIS in Syria, US military units only engage in superficial strikes and operations against the terrorist organization, “while killing civilians in the process.”
During the US’s occupation in Syria, its military forces have looted oil from the country, with one recent incident taking place on October 26, 2022.
This oil looting is a repeated incident that the US pulls off. Per the Syrian Oil Ministry, US military units have robbed over 80% of Syria’s daily oil production.
The US needs to absolutely leave Syria. There’s no pressing national interest at stake in this Middle Eastern country. It’s the height of foreign policy malpractice to continue occupying the Middle Eastern nation when the US’s border is completely collapsing and cartels and human trafficking organizations penetrate the US with impunity.