Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday said the White House security advisor John Bolton did not allow the United States President Donald Trump’s administration to hold talks with the Venezuelan government.
Maduro noted that for several times he had made attempts to establish a dialogue with Trump’s government for a quite long time, but however, has received no results in turn.
According to Sputnik news reports, in an interview, Maduro told Sputnik: “For all these years, I have been trying on a personal level [to establish dialogue]. I have sent messages that reached Trump publicly, through media, in order to establish a relationship with the US government, in order to have respect and dialogue, despite the political, cultural and ideological differences between Donald Trump and me. And it seemed like the window of opportunity opened for that. But Bolton prevented Donald Trump from initiating a dialogue with me. I have the information that he has prohibited this.”
During his interview with Sputnik, Maduro has reiterated his readiness to establish dialogues with Trump, but he believes that talk is unlikely to happen as Trump’s leading team will take any steps to prevent such developments.
Maduro said, “At this point, I think it is difficult. I am ready to talk to Donald Trump personally, in public, in the United States or in Venezuela, wherever he wants, [and discuss] any agenda and any issues he [Trump] would like to talk about.”
He added: “Moreover, I am convinced that if we meet in person, it will be a different story. But I think, they [Trump’s advisers] will not give us a chance. Let’s be patient. For now, I think it is very difficult.”
Lambasting on Trump’s move imposing a sanction against country’s state-owned oil company PDVSA and Citgo, its subsidiary, Maduro said, “This US decision absolutely violates the norms of international law, it is an unlawful decision [made] in a bid to expropriate a Venezuelan asset, a Venezuelan company. That’s what we’re going to demonstrate. I am confident that we will emerge victorious [in this situation], protecting company Citgo as the property of the Venezuelan people.”
He described Trump’s move as “one of the most imprudent, most insane decisions made by [US National Security Adviser] John Bolton”.
While commenting over the possibilities of talks with his opposition leader Juan Guaido, Maduro told Sputnik, he was ready to hold talks and start negotiation with Guaido with possible international mediation. Maduro said, “I am ready to sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition so that we could talk about what benefits Venezuela.”
Speaking at possible international mediation, Maduro said, “There are several governments and organizations in the world which have demonstrated their sincere concern about what was happening in Venezuela, and they have called for dialogue.”
Maduro added he would like such governments and organizations “to support dialogue in Venezuela”. He added saying that Caracas was discussing possible international mediation in the country’s political crisis with the interested countries, as well as the issues might get resolved soon.
Maduro said: “The governments of Mexico, Uruguay, Bolivia, Russia, Vatican, some European governments support [the call for] dialogue. I am sending official letters to them so that they support the dialogue in Venezuela — where they want, when they want and in whatever form they want.”
Seeking “private talks, telephone talks between the president, foreign minister”, Maduro said, “Our Foreign Minister [Jorge Arreaza] is very active. We hope that there will be good results in the coming hours.”