Russian Foreign Ministry Warns U.S. May Plan to Maintain Illegal Occupation of Syria Forever - Destroy Country

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that the U.S. may be planning to keep its forces in Syria indefinitely, according to evidence obtained by Moscow. "We have recently received different information from various sources. We cannot confirm it for now, and want to ask the Americans about this directly. Supposedly, they are making the decision to never leave Syria, even to the point of destroying this country," he stated. The U.S. military presence in Syria has been expanded since the inauguration of the Joe Biden administration, after President Donald Trump faced very considerable resistance domestically when trying to withdraw American forces. The U.S. Military does not have authorisation from either the United Nations Security Council or from Damascus to deploy military forces to the country, which makes its military presence illegal under international law. The Pentagon has focused on establishing strongholds in oil rich regions of Syria, with oil extracted and sold and the funds appropriated by the U.S. and reportedly used to fund anti-government militias that operate on Syrian soil. These oil extraction activates have been equated with plundering by experts, which is a serious war crime.

The Russian foreign minister’s warning came just hours after an American strike against Iranian-backed militia groups operating on Syrian soil, which was allegedly carried out in responses to attacks by affiliated militia groups against American assets in Iraq. These attacks are thought to have been carried out by U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle heavyweight fighters which are based in Jordan, and which have in recent years frequently violated Syrian airspace with impunity. The fact that the U.S. chose to retaliate against targets in Syria rather than those in Iraq, however, appears to have been intended to send a political message regarding its stronger stance on maintaining its occupation in the former of the two countries. Minister Lavrov stated regarding the American strike: “Our military was warned four or five minutes ahead of time. Of course, even if we are talking about deconfliction, as is customary in ties between Russian and US military personnel, this is nothing. This was a kind of notification when the strike was already being carried out.” He further stressed that it was  impossible to consider the strikes separately "from the fact that the US are present on Syrian territory illegally, in violation of all norms of international law, including Security Council Resolutions on reconciliation in the Syrian Arab Republic." 

Analysts have widely suspected that the U.S. intends to formally partition a pro-Western enclave in Syria where its personnel are currently deployed, creating a Kosovo-style new state which, although very unlikely to be recognised in the United Nations, is likely to receive widespread recognition in the Western world. The large majority of Western countries do not recognise the government of Syria, although Damascus has the recognition of the United Nations and the overwhelming majority of non-Western states across the world .