The Americans made a proposal that the Russians didn’t like, as experts talk about Trump’s strategy on the Syrian “oil fields”

US President Donald Trump’s new strategy in Syria to protect oil fields in the east is far from reality and questionable, experts say.

“We’re taking measures to strengthen our position in Deir Ezor to prevent ISIS jihadists from reaching the oil fields”, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday.

At a press conference in Brussels, Esper said when asked about the possibility of sending combat tanks that the Pentagon “is reinforcing this site and will include mechanized forces”.

On October 6, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the 1,000 US troops deployed in northeastern Syria, opening the way for a Turkish military operation against the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), the main component of which is the Kurds and Washington’s ally in the fight against jihadists.

But he said on Wednesday that “a small number of US soldiers” would remain in Syria “in areas containing oil”, stressing “we’ve ensured the security of oil”.

“We’ll protect him and decide what to do in the future”, he said.

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday to send reinforcements to protect oil fields without clarifying their size.

Officially, this is aimed at preventing the Islamic State from seizing the country’s major oil fields, which are currently controlled by the Arab Kurdish Alliance represented by the Syria Democratic Forces, in the province of Deir Ezor east of the Euphrates, not far from the Iraqi border.

But in the opinion of Nick Heras, this new strategy is a complete transformation of the United States, which was justifying its presence on Syrian soil against Assad by fighting the Islamic State.

The Trump administration is trying to “hold the best oil resources of the country hostage and use a currency as a bargaining chip … to force the Assad regime and its Russian mother-in-law to accept the demands of the United States”, said an expert on the Syrian conflict at the new Center for a New American Security Center.

During a political settlement of the Syrian conflict.

Nick Heras continued that “the US mission has shifted from noble fighting in the face of the most dangerous terrorist organization?

Abhorred in the world to a fake maneuver to force Assad to change his behavior through the confiscation of Syrian oil.

Trump personally suggested on Monday that the United States “send one of the largest oil groups” to exploit Syrian oil.

“It would be illegal”, former US special envoy Brett McGulak, who resigned last December, told a news conference, recalling that Syrian oil belongs to a Syrian state company “like it or not”.

He added that the United States had previously proposed the idea of ​​exploiting Syrian oil in agreement with Moscow and depositing profits in a development fund placed at the disposal of the state after the conflict.

“The Russians didn’t like the idea and I think they won’t like it today either”, he said.

About 200 US troops are currently deployed alongside the SDF in Deir Ezor, but that number could be far from enough if the Russian military decides to take control of the area as it tried to do in early 2018.