Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed the U.S. administration’s support for a deal between  Delta Crescent Energy, a U.S. company, and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to “modernise the oil fields in northeastern Syria”. “The deal took a little longer... than we had hoped, and now we’re in implementation”, he added. The Syrian government on 2 August condemned the agreement “in the strongest terms” and described it as “steal[ing] Syria’s oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration”. Iran’s diplomatic spokesperson also decried the deal.