(Bloomberg) -- Turkey adamantly opposes U.S. plans for Syrian oil, including Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposal to use crude revenue to help fund American military operations in the war-torn nation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Tuesday that it has become clear over the past two weeks that “the priority of all interested parties in Syria, apart from Turkey, is to secure oil resources.”
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The American plans for Syrian oil resources add to an already formidable strains between Washington and NATO ally Turkey ahead of a Nov. 13 meeting between President Donald Trump and Erdogan in the U.S.
Last week, Trump said he’s going to work something out with formerly U.S.-backed Kurdish forces so they have cash flow, moving American forces close to the oil fields and holding out the possibility that an American oil company could get involved. U.S. control over Syria’s oil fields will keep them out of Islamic State’s hands and deny Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran a monetary windfall, his administration reasons.
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“We can also use some of the revenues from future oil sales to pay for our military commitment in Syria,” Graham added.
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“Just as Syrians should be able to determine their own political future, they should also be allowed to decide how the resources of their own land should be spent,” Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan’s chief of communications, wrote on Twitter late Tuesday, adding that oil revenue should be used for reconstruction efforts and to support civilians uprooted during Syria’s civil war.
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Syria pumped just 24,000 barrels a day last year -- worth about $1.5 million at current prices -- after production plunged more than 90% amid years of civil unrest and sanctions. The country’s oil reserves -- estimated at 2.5 billion barrels -- are paltry compared to other Middle East players such as Saudi Arabia, which lays claim to more than 100 times as much oil.
--With assistance from Stephen Cunningham, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Taylan Bilgic.
To contact the reporter on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Paul Abelsky
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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