The Kurds in Syria are vying for control over oil-rich areas in the country with the Syrian Arab army, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told his Russian counterpart on Wednesday. “They [the Kurds] know well that Syria will not allow its sovereignty to be violated under any conditions,” al-Moallem told Sergey Lavrov at a meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, as carried by Reuters . “They are now drunk on U.S. assistance and support. But they need to understand that this assistance won’t last forever,” the Syrian foreign minister said. Al-Moallem also said at the meeting with Lavrov that the U.S.-led coalition in Syria was “methodically destroying all except the IS.” Up to 35 million Kurds live in the mountains straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Armenia. Kurds have never had an independent state, although they are the fourth-biggest ethnic group in the Middle […]