Russia claims US is poised to sell millions worth of Syrian oil

(November 3)Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry accused the United States of "criminal activity" associated with President Trump's plan to deploy US troops to guard the oil fields in eastern Syria

Zakharova's accusations

The Russian news agency Tass reports Zakharova's exact claims: "Bypassing their own sanctions, the Americans are smuggling oil from Syria worth over $30 mln per month and are not going to leave these areas in the near future. Today’s international community cannot help but ask questions at a time when a civilized country that systematically declares its commitment to some democratic values and international law, is pumping oil out of the northeast of Syria, a sovereign state, and masks its criminal activity by some pretexts of a struggle against the Islamic State.."

Zakharova estimates that the US stood to make tens of millions of dollars every month from the oil extracted in the region.

Mark Esper confirms troops to guard eastern oil fields

The US Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed last month that US troops supported by armored vehicles would be deployed to guard the oil fields. The official narrative is that the mission is designed to prevent the oil resources falling back into the hands of Islamic State militants and providing them with funds. However, Trump and other in his administration have made claims to income from the operation of the fields.

Trump and others want to sell the Syrian oil

Trump has gone as far as to suggest that he might get companies such as Exxon-Mobil or some other US energy company to work the fields. A recent Bloomberg article notes: "President Donald Trump says he’s secured “the Oil” in Syria, while Senator Lindsey Graham is floating the idea of tapping that bounty to help fund military operations in the war-torn nation." The article also reports: "Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said increasing production of the oil fields will help Syrian Democratic Forces. “We can also use some of the revenues from future oil sales to pay for our military commitment in Syria.”"

The aim of guarding the fields is also to deprive the Assad regime of oil

Recently, Graham said the US control over the Syrian oil fields would deny Assad and Iran a monetary windfall. It would only be with Syrian government permission that Iran could make money through some agreement. The oil is within Syria. It is not evident why the Syrian government should not develop and sell it. Of course the US has imposed sanctions on Syria as well as Iran. The US has followed a policy of Syrian regime change that has failed. Syria is to be punished for that failure.

Syrian oil production is down and deposits are limited

Though Syrian oil deposits are significant they do not compare in size with those of Saudi Arabia or Iraq. The several years of fighting in Syria that has involved extensive bombing has left the industry in poor shape to say the least. Assad and his ally Russia hope to see a full re-unification of the country in the end.

The Kurds have depended upon the US to help keep Assad from taking over Kurdish controlled areas and also to fend off the Turks. However, the US withdrew from the border areas with Turkey where Turkey wants a safe zone. As a result, the Kurds even allowed the Assad regime to take control of a Kurdish-controlled section along the Turkish border. The Kurds may possibly make a deal with Assad although it may be difficult to do this while the US controls areas such as that of the oil fields. It is hardly surprising that both Russia and Assad are much angered by the new US policy and its rationale.

According to Bloomberg, last year Syria was able to extract about 24,000 barrels a day. This would have been worth about $1.5 million at current prices. However, this year due to the war and sanctions production has fallen about 90 percent.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

French jets target ISIS tunnels in northeaster Iraq

(November 3)The French Defense Ministry issued a statement last Friday verifying reports that they had carried out a series of airstrikes with Rafale jets in northeastern Iraq that were believed to have been on ISIS tunnels in the area.

French planes based in Jordan and the UAE

There is an international coalition in what is called Operation Inherent Resolve. The French operations are part of that mission that is mounted against ISIS. The French attacks were said to have been carried out with coordination from other coalition members including Reaper drones that were provided by an unnamed member of the coalition. The US is a leading member of the group.

Although several strikes were carried out there are no reports on whether there were any casualties or damage. The French said that it was ascertained that there were no civilians in the area before the raid. According to French Defense Ministry the French have carried out 29 sorties just this week.

Operation Chammal

A recent article describing the events notes that the French attacks were under the aegis of the Enduring Freedom Operation Inherent Resolve: "The strikes were conducted on Thursday, October 31 as part of Operation Chammal, France’s contribution to Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational Coalition military effort against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The operation was conducted jointly and coordinated with other elements of the international Coalition. The aim was to destroy several tunnels used by Daesh as a rear base for its actions, and to degrade its logistical and military capabilities in this region..This strike was prepared with our allies as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. It was preceded by reconnaissance by an Atlantic 2 maritime patrol aircraft, and was supported by a Reaper UAV from the Coalition.” "Daesh" is another term for ISIS or ISIL or the Islamic State.

In a recent US operation, the leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed but the anti-ISIS coalition is anxious to make it clear that his death does not mean that the war against ISIS is over. In fact there could be revenge attacks by the group after his death.

Operation Inherent Resolve

Wikipedia describes Operation Inherent resolve and the associated task force: "Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) is the Joint Task Force established by the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), set up by the US Central Command to coordinate military efforts against ISIL (Da'esh), and is composed of US military forces and personnel from over 30 countries.[1][15] The stated aim of CJTF–OIR is to "degrade and destroy" ISIL.[16] Its establishment by US Central Command was announced in December 2014, after it was set up to replace the ad hoc arrangements that had previously been established to coordinate operations following the rapid gains made by ISIL in Iraq in June.[17] Formed in October 2014,[3] its first "coalition integration conference" was held the first week of December 2014.[1]...While ground forces were also deployed in various roles (special forces raids, trainers, advisers, artillery, spotters), the bulk of CJTF-OIR's combat operations took the form of an air war against the Islamic State. The countries that directly participated in this part of the campaign were the United States (accounting for 75-80% of airstrikes on its own), Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.[19] By the end of 2017, CJTF-OIR stated that over 80,000 ISIL fighters had been killed by their airstrikes.[20] "

Previously published in the Digital Journal

Trump's claim to Syrian oil complicates US mission in Syria

(November 1)President Trump in a recent speech in Chicago said that the US was staying in Syria to control the oil. However, he also said that the US was "keeping the oil" and claimed it was worth $45 million per month.

Trump's position

A recent article reports Trump's position: "Trump has offered varying descriptions of the military's role in eastern Syria. On Oct. 25 he said, "We've secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil." Three days later, he went further, declaring the oil to be America's."We're keeping the oil — remember that," he said in Chicago. "I've always said that: 'Keep the oil.' We want to keep the oil. Forty-five million dollars a month? Keep the oil."

Trump has twice before claimed he would remove US troops from Syria. He did remove troops from the so-called "safe" buffer zone along the border with Turkey and redeployed some to Iraq without the permission of the Iraqi government that has demanded that they just be considered in transit and move on.

US officials have not said how Trump is going to execute his plans or explained the rationale and legal basis for taking the oil.

Trump himself has suggested he can make a deal with an oil company such as Exxon-Mobil: "US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he is interested in making a deal with Exxon-Mobil or some other energy company to tap Syrian oil reserves in areas not controlled by the Syrian government."

US military goals in Syria have never been that clear and with ISIS mostly defeated no doubt Trump's position set out a new reason for the US to be there. However the mission has now become legally and morally dubious and appears its length is now open-ended.

Doubts about Trump's project

Russia as an ally of Syria was very critical of the Trump position calling it "state banditry". However, even US legal experts said that there was no real legal basis for the US to just seize Syrian oil. Any sale of the oil is problematic as well. No US or other oil companies have shown interest in extracting the Syrian oil no doubt because they realize the ownership of the oil would be disputed.

If any companies do in the end decide to extract the oil under the protection of US military occupation, the occupation could last until the oil runs out.

White House officials have not explained what Trump means by keeping the oil but said privately they had been given no order to take ownership of any Syrian resources including oil wells and stored crude. However Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Thursday he interprets Trump as meaning he will deny Islamic extremists access to the oil.

Details of the new deployment

A recent article describes details of the revised deployment in Syria: "Some 500 US ground troops are currently involved, along with M2A2 Bradley vehicles. Tanks are also reportedly going to be deployed to the area, though it’s not clear any have actually arrived yet.Estimates are that 700 to 900 US troops are going to remain in Syria under this plan, which is a minor decline from the 1,000 troops believed to be present when the US moved out of the north to facilitate the Turkish invasion. "

Previously published in the Digital Journal

Walmart to consider selling its streaming service Vudu

Walmart is considering a sale of its video streaming service Vudu.according to a recent report. It is not known how much the company expects to sell the service for nor whether is has hired bankers to help with the sale.

Walmart bought Vudu in 2010 for $100 million.

A recent article notes: "Word of Walmart’s desire to sell Vudu comes days before Disney and Apple each launch video streaming services meant to compete with Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Vudu offers a different kind of video service, allowing people to rent or buy individual shows or movies, in what is essentially an electronic version of a video rental store. "

Why Walmart may be selling Vudu

The video streaming market is now becoming increasingly crowded with giants such as Apple launching Apple TV Plus and Disney also launching a service next month. NBC and HBO are also offering services next year. The Vudu digital rental and purchase model has also declined in popularity. Now customers want subscription services that stream content. These type of services are becoming the norm.

However Vudu has its virtues and has always been consided one of the better places to stream a movies as the video quality is excellent. Vudu was also a player in UltraViolet a disc-to-digital program that allowed customers to add their collection to the cloud. Vudu now supports Movies Anywhere as well.

Wikipedia describes Movies Anywhere as follows: "Movies Anywhere is a United States-exclusive cloud-based digital locker and over-the-top streaming platform operated by The Walt Disney Company.[3] The service allows users to stream and download purchased films, including digital copies redeemed from codes found in home video releases as well as digital purchases from participating services. The platform provides content from Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., and Walt Disney Studios.[4] The system utilizes an internal platform known as KeyChest, which synchronizes content licenses from digital distribution platforms linked to a central user account. "

Walmart has been investing in Vudu

Walmart has been investing in Vudu and has considerable new original content. Apparently Walmart even considered launching a subscription streaming service last year. However sources report that Walmart now considers it would cost too much to turn Vudu around and it no longer makes financial sense to do so.

A recent statement from Walmart is rather coy about mentioning the issue of selling: “Over the last nine years, we’ve built Vudu into an incredibly strong and growing business with an installed base of more than 100 million devices across America...We’re constantly having and [are] open to conversations with new and existing partners to explore opportunities for continued growth; however, we never share details of those discussions.”

Previously published in the Digital Journal