The U.S. subsequently forced the Kurdish-led YPG to rebrand as the SDF, and then treated them as proxies to try to weaken the Syrian government and its allies Iran and Russia.
In June, Reuters confirmed that Kurdish-led authorities had agreed to stop selling wheat to Damascus, after the U.S. pressured them to do so.
The Grayzone has reported how the Center for a New American Security, a leading Democratic Party foreign policy think tank bankrolled by the U.S. and NATO, proposed using the "wheat weapon" to starve Syria's civilian population.
A former Pentagon researcher-turned-senior fellow at the think tank declared openly, "Wheat is a weapon of great power in this next phase of the Syrian conflict." He added, "It can be used to apply pressure on the Assad regime, and through the regime on Russia, to force concessions in the UN-led diplomatic process."
Trump appeared to echo this strategy in his Oct. 21 cabinet meeting.
"We want to keep the oil, and we'll work something out with the Kurds so that they have some money, have some cash-flow," he said. "Maybe we'll have one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly."
While Trump has pledged to bring U.S. soldiers home and end their military occupation of Syrian territory which is illegal under international law, it is evident that the broader regime change war continues.
A brutal economic war on Damascus is escalating, not only through sanctions but through the theft of Syria's natural treasures by foreign powers.
This article is from The Grayzone.
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