On instructions from my Government, and further to our previous letters regarding the aggressive practices and grave violations of international law and the Charter of the United Nations being perpetrated by United States forces present illegally in parts of north-eastern Syria and the Tanf area in the south-east, I should like to draw your attention to the following:

The United States of America and its proxy terrorist organizations and militias persist in violating the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and plundering its strategic resources. Their goal is to exacerbate the effects of the illegal unilateral coercive measures and deny Syrians the use of their national resources. They want to increase the suffering of Syrians resulting from the terrorist war imposed on them these past years with direct support from the United States administration and its allies, foremost among them the Israeli occupation entity.

Damage to the Syrian oil and mineral sector from acts of aggression, looting and sabotage by United States forces and their proxy terrorist organizations and separatist militias comes to a total of $115.2 billion for the period from 2011 through the first half of 2023.

The latest statistics and estimates for the oil sector in Syria show direct losses of $27.5 billion as follows:

• Theft, waste and burning of an estimated 341 million barrels of extracted oil – with thefts amounting to between 100,000 and 130,000 barrels per day, and recently reaching close to 150,000 barrels per day – in addition to some 5.909 billion m3 of natural gas, and 413,000 tons of household gas, for a total value of $21.4 billion;

• Destruction and theft of facilities, with damages amounting to $3.2 billion;

• Bombing by so-called “international coalition” aircraft of oil and gas facilities in Syria, with damages amounting to $2.9 billion.

Indirect losses came to $87.7 billion, representing the value of lost benefits from crude oil, natural gas and household gas as a result of production falling below rates anticipated under normal operating conditions.

The Syrian Arab Republic stresses that these losses are not just numbers. They are quantifiable evidence of the responsibility of the United States and its allies for the suffering and deteriorating living and humanitarian conditions that they are bringing about in order to suffocate Syrians and undermine their national choices.

The Syrian Arab Republic once against calls on the United Nations to take urgent action to put an end to the aggression and occupation being perpetrated against the Syrian Arab Republic and the crimes and violations of sovereignty stemming therefrom. An end must be put to the illegal presence of United States forces. The territory occupied by them, including oil and gas fields and other natural resources, must be returned to the Syrian State to help improve humanitarian conditions and meet humanitarian needs in a manner that promotes the voluntary, safe and dignified return of displaced persons and refugees to their homeland. The Syrian Arab Republic demands that the United States administration be held accountable for these thefts, and also that it make restitution to the Syrian Arab Republic for the entire amount of these losses.

I should be grateful if the present letter could be issued and circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 34, and of the Security Council.

Bassam Sabbagh