United States ‘disappointed’ by Turkish support to Maduro: official

Maduro, Erdogan, Washington, Turkey, Venezuela,

The United States is “disappointed” with Turkey’s support of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a senior US official said Thursday, after Washington backed a bid by the South American’s country’s opposition to remove the leader from office.

Washington and a dozen Latin American nations quickly recognised Venezuela’s National Assembly leader Juan Guaido after he declared himself acting president on January 23.

The opposition contents the legitimacy of the election Maduro won in May, which is also not recognised by the US, the European Union and a large part of the international community.

Guaido is moving to marshal international support to form a transitional government to hold new presidential elections, with a new vote supported by the Washington, Europe and much of Latin America.

But Maduro has rejected this, insisting his term ends in 2025.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his support to Maduro over the telephone last week, urging him to “keep his head up”.

The senior American official, who requested anonymity, told journalists that “we believe strongly that the last remaining legitimate democratic institution is Guaido, who we’ve recognised as interim president.”

“But that is not the view of the Turkish government, and we are disappointed by that,” the official said.

“We have talked to the Turks like we’ve talked to an awful lot of governments in the world, sharing our perspective and asking them to join us in acknowledging the illegitimacy of the Maduro regime.

“They have not responded positively to that conversation thus far,” the official added.

The official also warned that Washington is looking at trade between Ankara and Caracas, especially gold exports to Turkey, to see if any American sanctions on Venezuela have been violated.

“We are looking at the nature of Turkish-Venezuelan commercial activity, and if we assess a violation of our sanctions, we will obviously take action.”
Venezuela exported nearly 900 million euros ($1,000) worth of gold to Turkey last year, according to reports.

In mid-January, the two countries agreed to increase such exports under an agreement to refine Venezuelan gold at a plant in the city of Corum, near Ankara.

The post United States ‘disappointed’ by Turkish support to Maduro: official appeared first on ARYNEWS.

Comments

Accountability court hears assets case against Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday resumed the hearing of a reference filed against former finance minister Ishaq Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income. Judge Muhammad Bashir is recording the statement of a prosecution witness, Ishtiaq Ahmed. At the previous hearing, the accountability judge had reserved his verdict on an application filed by two co-accused seeking acquittal in the case. Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, who are directors of Dar’s companies, had filed the application requesting the judge to exonerate them from all charges for want of evidence. Qazi Misbah, the counsel for the two co-accused, contended the prosecution has failed to provide compelling evidence to prove the allegations leveled against his clients. The third co-accused President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Saeed Ahmed, had already filed an application before the court for his acquittal wh...

SFA raids several restaurants in Karachi, imposes fine

KARACHI: The Sindh Food Authority (SFA) on Friday raided several restaurants in city’s North Nazimabad area over unhygienic conditions, ARY News reported. According to the SFA, one of the restaurants was found utilizing the used oil multiple times. The items were also not properly frozen while crockery for serving the food was also not clean. The team imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the restaurant. The SFA team found hygiene standards were sheerly compromised in food making to the core. The food inspectors said they had previously served notices to the food outlets, but the restaurant owners apparently turned a blind eye to it. Raids were also conducted in district Malir and Gulshan-e-Hadeed. Sanitary conditions and lack of fumigation facilities were found at the restaurants in some of the Malir outlets. The SFA team also raided a bakery ‘Friend Bakers’ and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 over poor hygiene. Similarly another roadside restaurant was fined Rs 20,000 for neglecting he...

Trump says US generals feel Beirut blast was likely an ‘attack’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday cast a massive explosion in Beirut as a possible attack, despite statements by Lebanese leaders that it was likely caused by highly explosive material that had been stored at warehouses in the capital for years. “The United States stands ready to assist Lebanon,” Trump said at a White House briefing of Tuesday’s explosion, which killed at least 78 people and injured thousands. “It looks like a terrible attack.” When asked later about his depiction of the explosion, Trump said that he had met with some U.S. generals who feel the blast was not “some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event.” He told reporters that according to these unnamed generals “they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.” The Pentagon referred questions to the White House. Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was unclear where Trump was receiving his information but that initial information did not appear...

Siasat Wala Blog

Search This Blog