Terrorist YPG/PKK supplies oil to Assad regime, in violation of US sanctions

ANKARA

The terrorist PKK/YPG, in violation of US sanctions, is supplying oil and gas to the Assad regime, in defiance of international sanctions, said an independent Syrian human rights group on Thursday.

The YPG/PKK continues to provide oil to the Assad regime even after the adoption and enforcement of new US sanctions in the Caesar Act in June 2020, said a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

Detailing the magnitude of the oil trade, the report claimed the terror group annually makes $120 million in profits by selling around 6 million barrels of oil to the Assad regime.

The Assad regime uses the oil provided by the terror group to carry out its war crimes and crimes against humanity, the report stressed.

“US-led Coalition forces’ operations to stop oil-smuggling remain limited and incomplete in nature, with their impact usually lasting no longer than a few days,” the report said.

Oil profits funding terrorism

Arguing that the Syrian YPG might have transferred some funds earned by oil sales to the Assad regime to its leaders in the PKK – its parent group, which is based in northern Iraq – the report stressed that doing so would fall into the category of providing financing and support for global terrorism as the PKK is recognized by the US as a terrorist group.

The report adds that large amounts of oil being sold from eastern Syria, under terrorist YPG occupation since 2017, leaves the region in permanent need, with the remainder often insufficient to meet the needs of the regional population, especially since northeastern Syria is an agriculture-centric region needing fuel for operating agricultural machinery and irrigation.

The report also called on the US government and governments of countries participating in supporting the US-led coalition against Daesh/ISIS to open an immediate investigation into the terrorist YPG/PKK’s oil trade with the Assad regime, which is on US sanctions lists.

Against this background, the group should be held accountable under the Caesar Act, and all available penalties should be imposed to deter them from continuing to supply the Assad regime with oil and gas, the report said.

Parts of Deir ez-Zor, Syria – east of the Euphrates River – are under the occupation of the US-backed terrorist group YPG/PKK, while the city center and east and west of Deir-ez-Zor are under the control of the Assad regime and Iran-backed groups.

The US recognizes the PKK as a terrorist group but works together with the YPG/PKK, ostensibly to fight Daesh/ISIS. Turkey says using one terror group to fight another makes no sense.

The YPG/PKK terror group occupied Syria's largest oil field, Al-Omar, in October 2017.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian offshoot.