WHEN US President Donald Trump abruptly announced on October 9 that all US troops would be pulled out of northern Syria, his administration indicated that it was preparing for a full withdrawal from the country in the coming weeks.
Trump dumped his former Kurdish allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who had fought and defeated the Islamic State (ISIS) and were hailed as US ‘allies’, leaving them open to Turkish invasion.
In one of his tweets, Trump said at the time: ‘Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish border, for a change … Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!’ Immediately, the Syrian army moved into the northern region of Syria to confront the Turkish invaders.
On Wednesday, the Syrian government issued a call on the Kurdish-led SDF to join the ranks of the national army to help defend the country from Turkish aggression.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Syrian Defence Ministry expressed its readiness to accept the SDF militants willing to unite with the Syrian military against ‘a common enemy’.
The statement added: ‘We in Syria are facing a common enemy, and we must sacrifice as the people of unified Syria — including Arabs and Kurds — to restore every inch of the beloved Syrian territories.’ Abandoned to their fate by US imperialism, the Kurds have correctly turned to their only real ally, the Syrian people and its army.
If Trump was prepared to betray the Kurdish people it is clear that US imperialism has not given up its military designs on Syria.
Having promised to pull all US troops out of the country, Trump has now ordered US troops into the southeast of the country to take over its oil fields.
Last Monday, Trump declared: ‘We’re keeping the oil. We want to keep the oil. Forty-five million dollars a month? Keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.’
Trump was referring to the oil fields in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province that the SDF drove ISIS out of in 2017.
ISIS had used the oil from these fields, smuggled through Turkey, to fund its terrorist operations to overthrow the Assad government on behalf of imperialism. Now US imperialism has taken on the role and is promising to go to war with anyone over their right to steal Syria’s oil.
Trump brazenly told reporters: ‘And what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly.’
Trump doesn’t care that this oil is the rightful property of the Syrian state and that seizing it constitutes a crime under international law. He didn’t even try to pretend that the US was ‘protecting’ the oil fields from terrorists.
In fact, Russia this week published satellite images taken last month that show trucks guarded by US troops and private military companies.
Commenting on the evidence, the Russian defence ministry spokesman said that these convoys ‘smuggle oil from fields in the eastern part of Syria to other countries’, adding that what Washington does in Syria is ‘looting and burglary on a state level’.
This massive theft of oil belonging to the Syrian people is worth over $45 million a month to US capitalism and Trump is prepared to go to war with the Syrian army, supported by Russia and Kurdish forces in order to keep hold of this stolen wealth.
Having defeated all imperialism’s attempts at ‘regime change’ the Syrian people and the Kurds are now united against the Turkish invasion and will not stop until all foreign troops not invited by the government are kicked out of the country.
This struggle will be supported by the working class of the world who hate imperialism’s endless wars to steal the oil wealth of the Middle East.
The best way to support the struggles of the people of the Middle East is for the working class to rise up and take power and smash the common enemy of the Syrian people and the working class through the victory of the world socialist revolution.