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Claim: US "steals" crude oil from Syria.
Other sources include: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/donald-trumps-boneheaded-plan-to-steal-syrian-oil/
My question: is this action legitimate? Does the US government or the US forces give an official explanation or official denial against this claim?
My guess is that the US does not recognize the SAA, while other Syrian entities recognized by US sold oil to US, legally within their own framework, independent of SAA.
From the New York Times it looks like United States has deserted its pivotal Kurdish ally and ceded most of the territory the Kurds had controlled to Syria, Turkey and Russia. Washington however would remain around al-Tanf in southern Syria to guard oil fields captured by the Kurds. This is to protect these oil fields from the Islamic State, as well as from Syria and Russia. It is consistent with what also the Guardian writes.
So Kurds now control these oil fields. It is however not written anywhere that all extracted oil automatically becomes the property of the United States.
Reuters writes that this oil is exported to over 10 different countries. The exact oil export destinations have long been secret, and the oil was often funneled through Israel to avoid detection. Reuters names the place "Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan".
