Skip to main content

Biden administration not trading Syrian oil for aid corridors with Moscow

The Biden administration said Syrian oil is for the people of Syria, not for the United States.
International humanitarian aid trucks cross into Syria's northwestern Idlib province through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, on Sept. 7, 2020.
Read in 

The Joe Biden administration has denied claims its decision to not renew a sanctions waiver for an American energy company that was planning to extract and market oil in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria is connected to efforts to get Russia to maintain cross-border humanitarian aid corridors to the war-stricken country.

The waiver for Delta Crescent Energy expired in May and was not renewed, as first reported by Al-Monitor a year after it was granted by the Donald Trump administration, which said it was keeping some US troops in northeast Syria to “keep” and “secure" the oil. The Biden administration says it is staying in northeast Syria “for the people” and “not for the oil.” Syria is under heavy sanctions by the United States, including the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and its related authorities, Executive Order (EO) 13894 from October 14, 2019, and the 2019 Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (Caesar Act) against the Assad regime and its patrons.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.