Donald Trump’s plan to ‘secure’ Syria’s oil is a meme come to life

The new US mission is sparking confusion, writes Middle East correspondent Richard Hall

A convoy of US armoured vehicles patrols the village of Ein Diwar in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province (AFP via Getty)

It is a scene so heavy with symbolism that it almost seems staged. An American flag flutters in the foreground. Behind it, the pump of an oil derrick silently bops up and down. And in between the two, in the desert landscape of northeastern Syria, a dozen US soldiers listlessly take their position.

This is what the latest mission given to the most powerful military force in the world by President Donald Trump looks like. It is one that has stoked as much confusion as it has controversy.

In the space of a few short weeks, the US military presence in Syria has been transformed from a locally popular peacekeeping and anti-Isis operation into a financially motivated and potentially illegal occupation of Syria’s eastern oil fields.