The Final Call

Venezuelan FM urges UN Security Council to reject use of force

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Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has accused the U.S. of trying to intervene in the Latin American country militarily, urging the UN Security Council to reject any use of force against the country.

Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on Feb. 27, Mr. Arreaza said the U.S.-led campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro had failed.

"They will not be able to lead us to a civil war in Venezuela," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told the UN Security Council. Photo: Telesur English

“That was the last chapter in the coup on Saturday,” he said. “Read my lips—it failed. Now is the time for us to return to sanity.”

In the same meeting, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia accused Washington of seeking to topple President Maduro through military intervention, adding that the U.S.’ policy toward Venezuela is tantamount to violating international law.

He supported Mr. Arreaza and questioned what other countries would have done if confronted with “an attempted illegal state border crossing for the delivery of unknown cargo.”

Turning to the U.S., he pointedly noted, “One country even wants to build a huge wall on the border of another country to prevent an illegal border crossing.”

Mr. Maduro on Feb. 27 said U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded by “bad” officials who are advising him during the ongoing political and humanitarian crisis in the country.

“I fear the people that are around him,” Mr. Maduro told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

“I think these people surrounding President Trump and advising him on Venezuelan policies are bad, and I think that at one point, President Trump will have to say ‘stop, stop, we have to see what happens with Venezuela,’ and change his politics.”

The comments come a day after the Trump administration ramped up sanctions to pressure Maduro to leave office and allow Juan Guaidó, an opposition leader the U.S. and other world powers recognize as Venezuela’s interim president, to take power.

Mr. Guaidó, 35, who is also the head of Venezuela’s defunct National Assembly, plunged the country into political chaos on January 23, when he proclaimed himself as the “interim president” of Venezuela, a bizarre move that drew U.S. President Donald Trump’s immediate support and prompted the White House to call on other countries to follow suit in recognizing Guaidó as such.

The U.S.-backed opposition figure has also planned to bring in foreign humanitarian aid, including those from the U.S. through the Colombian border, to allegedly alleviate the country’s economic crisis.

Mr. Maduro has said the real incentive behind Guaidó’s “relief” effort is to undermine his government in a Washington-orchestrated bid to oust him, stressing that Caracas would not allow the entry of the so-called aid to Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves. (PressTV.com)