The PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian wing, the YPG, in violation of United States sanctions, is supplying oil and gas to the Bashar Assad regime, said an independent Syrian human rights group on Thursday.
The YPG continues to provide oil to the Assad regime even after the adoption and enforcement of new U.S. sanctions in the Caesar Act in June 2020, said a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
Detailing the magnitude of the oil trade, the report claimed the terrorist group makes $120 million in profits annually by selling around 6 million barrels of oil to the Assad regime.
The Assad regime uses the oil provided by the terrorist group to carry out its war crimes and crimes against humanity, the report stressed.
"U.S.-led Coalition forces' operations to stop oil-smuggling remain limited and incomplete in nature, with their impact usually lasting no longer than a few days," the report said.
Oil profits fund terror
Arguing that the YPG might have transferred some funds earned by oil sales to the Assad regime to its leaders in the PKK, its parent group based in northern Iraq, the report stressed that the practice could be considered providing financing and support for global terrorism as the PKK is recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist group.
The report adds that large amounts of oil being sold from eastern Syria, under terrorist YPG occupation since 2017, leaves the region in permanent need, with the remainder often insufficient to meet the needs of the regional population, especially since northeastern Syria is an agriculture-centric region needing fuel for operating agricultural machinery and irrigation.
The report also called on the U.S. government and governments of countries participating in supporting the U.S.-led coalition against Daesh to open an immediate investigation into the terrorist YPG oil trade with the Assad regime, which is on U.S. sanctions lists.
Against this background, the group should be held accountable under the Caesar Act, and all available penalties should be imposed to deter them from continuing to supply the Assad regime with oil and gas, the report said.
Parts of Deir ez-Zor, Syria, east of the Euphrates River, are under the occupation of the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG, while the city center and east and west of Deir ez-Zor are under the control of the Assad regime and Iran-backed groups.
The U.S. recognizes the PKK as a terrorist group, but works together with the YPG, ostensibly to fight Daesh. Turkey says using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense.
The YPG terrorist group occupied Syria's largest oil field, al-Omar, in October 2017.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.