Syria

DAMASCUS, Dec 28 (NNN-SANA) – The United States is stealing natural resources from Syria, and imposing illegitimate sanctions, Syria’s Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, said in an interview, aired late yesterday.

The U.S. forces, with the help of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia, continue to steal the Syrian oil, wheat, and cotton, Mekdad told the national TV.

MEVO HAMA, Golan Heights (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday the country intends to double the amount of settlers living in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights with a multimillion-dollar plan meant to further consolidate Israel’s hold on the territory it captured from Syria more than five decades ago.

Bennett said the new investment in the region was prompted by the Trump administration’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the swath of land and by the Biden administration’s indication that it will not soon challenge that decision.

23 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Syrian opposition is making demands that are "unacceptable" in the ongoing Syrian peace talks, Russia's presidential envoy has claimed.

Following consultations with the Turkish and Iranian delegations in Kazakhstan, at the 17th round of Astana talks for the Syrian process, the Russian envoy Alexander Lavrentiev claimed on Tuesday that the Syrian opposition often makes demands and requests that allegedly force the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad to adopt a hard line in many issues.

DAMASCUS, Dec 14 (NNN-SANA) – Three civilians from the same family were killed yesterday, by U.S. forces in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, the state news agency reported.

The U.S. forces conducted a large-scale airdrop in the town of Al-Busayrah and surrounding areas, in the countryside of Deir al-Zour, with the help of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, killing the three victims in Al-Busayrah, the report said.

The U.S. forces also conducted house raids in the countryside of Deir al-Zour and abducted people to unknown locations, the report added.

14 Dec 2021; MEMO: An American military base in Al-Omar Oil Field in eastern Syria came under rocket attack yesterday, Rai Al-Youm reported, no party claimed responsibility for the incident.

The military base is located in the countryside of Syria's Deir Ez-Zor region, local sources said. Al-Omar is the largest oil field in Syria.

Sources reported the sound of four explosions and smoke around the oil field which US forces and international troops use as a base.

DAMASCUS, Dec 10 (NNN-SANA) – Syria will host the Arab energy conference in the capital, Damascus, in 2024, it was reported yesterday.

Following the approval of the members of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), Damascus will host the 2024 Arab energy conference, said the Syrian Oil Ministry.

The decision was announced after Syria’s Oil Minister, Bassam Radwan Toumeh, attended an online meeting with the council of ministers of the OAPEC, according to the ministry.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two explosive devices have ripped through a U.S. military convoy in Syria's eastern province of Al-Hasakah, state news agency SANA reported Tuesday.

The blasts caused massive damage to the military vehicles at the Syrian-Iraqi border east of Al-Hasakah on Monday night, said the report, without giving further details.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: Syria has accused Israel of carrying out an airstrike on the key port of Latakia in the early hours today, targeting shipping containers and causing a fire in the storage area. There were no reported casualties.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Explosions were heard Sunday inside a U.S. military base in the al-Tanf area in southeastern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosions occurred after U.S. helicopters flew in the area.

The UK-based watchdog group said the reasons behind the explosions were not immediately known.

It added the explosions came almost 10 days after the United States fired missiles against militias in eastern Syria from the al-Tanf base.

DAMASCUS, Dec 4 (NNN-SANA) – Syrian agriculture officials and farmers, have been complaining that the wheat seeds, recently provided by the United States for farmers, in Syria’s north-eastern province of al-Hasakah, contain a high degree of nematode (plant-parasitic worm) infection, that would harm the soil.

In the laboratory examination that used saline solution, researchers found a number of grains are infected with wheat allele, which is a nematode infection, Jamal Abdullah, head of the examination committee in the laboratory of the agricultural faculty in al-Hasakah, said.