Turkey on Monday blasted an agreement between Kurdish-led forces in Syria's northeast and a US oil company as "unacceptable" and equivalent to terrorism financing.
Senior Washington officials have confirmed that a US oil company has signed an agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to "modernize" oil fields under its control.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned on Sunday the deal as "theft" and an "affront to (its) national sovereignty.”
The US-backed SDF is mostly made up of Syrian Kurdish forces which Turkey considers to be a "terror group" linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Asharq Al-Awsat learned Saturday that SDF commander Mazloum Abdi confirmed to US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham that the deal was made by Delta Crescent Energy LLC.
"We regret the US support for this step that ignores international law and that targets Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.
It considered the deal to be "the financing of terrorism" and "unacceptable."
The foreign ministry accused the SDF of advancing "its separatist agenda by confiscating, with this step, Syrian people's natural resources."
"Syria's natural resources belong to Syrian people," it added.
