The quote Mr. Trump attributed to Mr. Esper could have come from a private conversation between them. “I think overall the cease-fire generally seems to be holding,” Mr. Esper said, according to a Reuters correspondent traveling with him. The first was that United States had “secured the oil,” a claim he has repeatedly made in recent days without any explanation. The White House did not clarify what he meant by those remarks, and Mr. Trump has ignored the question when asked about it by reporters. Last year, there were about 2.5 billion barrels of oil in the fields in northern Syria, according to industry estimates.

Source: New York Times October 20, 2019 18:00 UTC