31 Dec 2024 12:40 pm
--------------------------------------------The Trump administration has approved the first-ever deal for an American firm to develop and modernize oil fields in northeast Syria under control of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.The secretive contract, which has been in the works for more than a year and was signed in Syria last month, is expected to produce billions of dollars for Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria, none of which will be shared with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to sources who spoke to CNN.News of the deal drew an immediate rebuke from the Assad government in Damascus, which issued a statement Sunday saying the deal was an attempt to “steal Syria’s oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration,” and that the agreement is “null and void and has no legal basis.”The contract is in line with President Donald Trump’s long-standing goal of securing US control over oil fields in the region, and gives a little-known American firm, Delta Crescent Energy, wide purview to develop and upgrade more than half of the Syrian oil fields under the control of the SDF, said one of the company’s founders.“We have been authorized to engage in all aspects of energy development, transportation, marketing, refining and exploration in order to develop and redevelop the infrastructure in the region and to help the people in the region get their products into the international market,” said James Cain, a former US ambassador to Denmark during the George W. Bush administration and one of the co-founders of Delta Crescent Energy.Cain’s two other partners in the company are James Reese, a retired Delta Force Army officer who used to run his own private security firm, and John Dorrier, a veteran oil executive with years of experience operating in the Middle East.The trio formed the new company for the sole purpose of securing this deal in Syria and have worked intensely with State Department officials for more than a year, sources tell CNN. In April, the company received a license from the Treasury Department exempting it from the vast sanctions regime the US has placed on Syria in order to isolate the Assad regime, sources told CNN.The State Department and the Pentagon have officially sought to distance themselves from the project, but sources tell CNN that behind the scenes the State Department was active in making the deal happen.-------------------------- somehow I really doubt the kurds got billions of dollars.Mrkelly » 29 Dec 2024, 1:59 pm » wrote: ↑ Splained by a couple of the greats
https://youtu.be/UjhXXspw7pw?si=sFc60hHibQ9D9VVM