The United States must stop siphoning oil and grain out of Syria and make up for the damage caused by its military presence on Syrian soil, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Wednesday.

"The US must … immediately lift unilateral sanctions on Syria, stop plundering Syrian national resources and take concrete steps to compensate Syrians for the damage," Wang Wenbin told a press briefing. 

The US occupation forces remain largely in control of oil and grain-rich areas in northeastern Syria, according to Wang.

Syrian state media has accused over and over again US and SDF armed groups of smuggling resources to Iraq and then siphoning them out of there.

The United States has been for years supporting SDF militias against Damascus, and the US-backed forces are currently controlling parts of the provinces of Al-Haskah, Deir Ezzor, and Raqqa, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located. The actions carried out by the United States constitute state piracy with the aim of plundering Syria's oil resources.

On May 16, the US-led "international coalition" began a new repositioning process in Syria, roughly two and a half years after former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria, which he later retracted and deployed instead his oil-thirsty occupation forces in areas where oil and gas fields are found. 

Syrian civilians have long been resisting the US occupation of their country, with locals preventing US military convoys from entering their cities and villages all over Syria.