Syrian oil must be boycotted

The leftist opposition in the Netherlands is attacking oil multinational Shell for continuing to extract oil in Syria. A hypocritical stance, writes the left-liberal daily De Volkskrant: "In the eyes of the Socialist party Assad's tanks are fuelled by diesel from Shell. That makes for good rhetoric and it may even be true. But it may also be that the Molotov cocktails being hurled by the rebels are also made with Shell Super. The attack against Shell only conceals the failure of the policy makers. Of all the oil that Syria exports 95 percent goes to the European Union. If Germany, Italy and France decided tomorrow to stop imports from this country Assad would be finished. So far more cynical than Shell are the European capitals where the politicians have refused to turn off the tap on Syrian oil for months. It's a far easier decision than declaring war on Libya."

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