"The right to life of the Syrian people is being ruthlessly violated by the US," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday in response to Syrian state news agency's report of US looting more of the country's oil, noting that the banditry is seriously exacerbating the energy crisis and humanitarian disaster in Syria.
US occupation forces in Syria continued plundering the country's wealth and resources as they brought out a convoy consisting of 53 tankers on Saturday loaded with oil they looted bound for a US base in northern Iraq via al-Mahmoudiya illegitimate crossing, Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
Wang commented on Tuesday that the US illegal plundering of Syria has become blatantly obvious, quoting official data from the Syrian government that in the first half of 2022, more than 80 percent of Syria's daily oil production was illegally smuggled by US forces.
According to media reports, the US forces and their mercenaries are stealing an average of 66,000 barrels of oil per day in Syria as the country's average daily oil production is estimated to have reached 80,000 barrels in the first half of 2022.
The Syrian oil ministry said in August last year in a statement that the US practices in Syria including its unlawful trafficking of Syrian oil have caused direct and indirect losses of about $107.1 billion to Syria's oil and gas sectors.
Earlier this month, the US forces looted higher quantities of Syrian oil and wheat via 60 tankers, delivering it to their bases in Iraq via illegitimate maritime crossing.
In such miserable situation lacking oil and food, the US robbery could only make this winter even colder for the Syrian people, Wang said.
Greedy as the US is in stealing Syrian resources, it has been pretty "generous" in providing military aid to others, often in the billions or even tens of billions.
Whether the US is to "take" or "give," the results are all the same - to plunge other countries into turmoil and disaster, thereby preserving US interests and hegemony, the spokesperson said. This is the reality of the so-called rule-based order of the US, Wang added.
He urged the US to give the Syrian people and the international community an explanation for the oil theft, and to stop trampling on international suspicions and undermining international law.
The Syrian government has slammed the US' brazen robbery behavior repeatedly over an extended period. However, since the US retained a military presence in northeastern and eastern Syria since 2014, it has been transporting Syrian oil it stole to Iraq where they later sell it to Iraqi oil companies at a lower price and use the money to support the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and other opposition armed groups in Syria, experts noted.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Intelligence Unit says Iran will consider the Israeli regime’s shelters “legitimate targets” if residential areas in the country come under attack.
In a post published on social media platform X on Tuesday, the IRGC said that any strikes on residential areas in Iran would give Iran’s armed forces the right to attack Israeli shelters in the occupied lands.
The IRGC stated that it has intelligence on the blueprints and the exact locations of these shelters.
Iran began its Operation True Promise 4 after the US and Israel launched their joint military aggression against the Islamic Republic in late February by assassinating Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, and several senior Iranian officials.
In its latest wave of attacks, the IRGC said it rained down missiles on the Israeli regime’s “secure” intelligence facilities in Tel Aviv.
Iranian armed forces have also pounded American military bases and ...
In a fresh wave of retaliatory strikes, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) targeted the Israeli regime’s “secure” intelligence facilities in Tel Aviv.
The IRGC’s Public Relations Department said in a statement on Tuesday that it had carried out the 79th wave of its ongoing retaliatory Operation True Promise 4 against the Israeli and American targets.
Deploying powerful Kheybar Shekan, Emad, and Sejjil missiles alongside IRGC Aerospace Force kamikaze drones, the operation successfully breached the regime's multi-layered air defense systems, the statement said.
The missiles, it stated, targeted Israel’s intelligence facilities in northern and central Tel Aviv, as well as military commercial and support centers in Ramat Gan and the Negev.
The missiles also hit Israel’s southern military logistics and command headquarters in Beersheba.
The missile strikes triggered widespread panic across Israel and forced the suspension of a Knesset (parliament) session on Tuesday.
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The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announces staging the 78th wave of its underway retaliatory Operation True Promise 4, targeting such highly sensitive Israeli targets as Dimona, Tel Aviv, and Eilat as well as several US military bases in the region.
In a statement on Tuesday, the IRGC described the latest phase of the operation as a significant development featuring missiles raining down on enemy targets as the nation was leveling momentous support behind the Islamic Republic by attending millions-strong rallies with "clenched fists."
'A distinct record'
The latest phase, it noted, "has set a distinct record in the timeline of the war."
According to the statement, targets in the occupied port of Eilat, Dimona, a heavily fortified city that hosts the Israeli regime's notorious nuclear reactor in its vicinity, and northern Tel Aviv were struck using Emad and multi-warhead Qadr missile systems along with attack drones.
This was the second time the Corps was hitting Dimona, ...
