US Congress will ban spending to control Syrian and Iraqi oil
A bill in the US Congress aims to prevent the Pentagon from spending federal funds for the purposes of imposing control over oil fields in Syria and Iraq.
The project came right after the draft military budget for fiscal year 2021, released on Tuesday by the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.
In the press release regarding the new draft law, it is stated that “it is prohibited to spend money to control oil resources in Syria and Iraq”.
This amount, in particular, is estimated at approximately $ 700 million, and it is proposed that it be used to provide assistance, and to train foreign security services, irregular armed groups and persons involved in activities aimed at combating the ISIS terrorist organization.
These funds aim, among other things, to support the Iraqi security forces, the Kurdish “Peshmerga” and the “Syria Democratic Forces” coalition.
Members of Congress propose to allocate $ 1.14 billion in international security cooperation programs, including that $ 150 million can be used to enhance security in the Baltic countries, 160 million for programs in Africa, 130 million to help Central and South American countries, and 105 million for “programs with Jordan”.
They are proposing to allocate another $ 3 billion to help the Afghan security forces, provided that they are “under the control of a civilian government that protects human and women’s rights and does not allow terrorists to use Afghanistan’s territory to threaten the United States and its allies”.
Adoption of the bill requires approval by the House of Representatives and the Senate in Congress before it is submitted to the president.
