New York [US], December 18 : United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres called for US and Venezuela to respect international law amid rising tensions.
Guterres on Thursday received a phone call from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Moros wherein the former called for restraint.
A statement from Guterres' office stated, "The Secretary-General has received a phone call from H.E. Nicolas Maduro Moros, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, regarding the current tensions in the region."
"During the call, the Secretary-General reaffirmed the United Nations' position on the need for Member States to respect international law, particularly the United Nations Charter, exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability," the statement added.
Maduro said today that US President Donald Trump revealed his true motives toward the South American country with his claim that it had stolen US "oil, land and other assets," as per CNN.
Maduro said Trump's claim showed the US was really seeking regime change along with ownership of Venezuela's territory and resources. Previously, the US has characterized its build-up of naval forces near the country as aimed at combating drug-trafficking.
"It is simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense, and we have said so many times, and now everyone sees the truth. The truth has been revealed," Maduro said.
"The aim in Venezuela is a regime change to impose a puppet government that wouldn't last 47 hours, that would hand over the Constitution, sovereignty, and all the wealth, turning Venezuela into a colony. It will simply never happen," he continued, CNN reported.
On Tuesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the military buildup around Venezuela would get bigger until the country returned to the US "the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us."
Trump told reporters today that Venezuela had illegally taken away "energy rights" and that the US wanted them back. "We're getting land, oil rights, whatever we had. They took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn't watching. But they're not going to do that. We want it back. They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. As you know, they threw our companies out and we want it back."
Venezuela brought its oil sector under state control in the 1970s. Previously, American companies had a much larger presence in its oil fields, as per CNN.
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