The US senator Lindsey Graham claimed that the United States President Donald Trump had discussed the possibility to use its military forces in Venezuela with him a couple of weeks ago.
Venezuela is currently undergoing political crisis since the country elected Nicolas Maduro as the new president of the country. Maduro had accused Washington of performing a state coup in the country.
According to Sputnik news reports, Graham told US news website Axios about his conversation with Trump that had happened a couple of weeks ago, “He [Trump] said, ‘What do you think about using military force?’ and I said, ‘Well, you need to go slow on that, that could be problematic.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m surprised, you want to invade everybody.”
Graham further added he believed that military force had to be used when the US national security interests were jeopardized. He also told Axios the US president was “really hawkish” on Venezuela.
While citing senior officials from Trump’s administration, Axios added that there had been no signs that Washington would really plan to invade Venezuela, as Trump only wanted to bolster regime change in the Latin American country for the diplomatic and economic reasons.
Russia has said it recognized Nicolas Maduro as the legitimately elected president of Venezuela and has also voiced willingness to mediate talks between the opposition and the government.
Last Wednesday, the conflict between the opposition and the government escalated when Juan Guaido, the opposition leader, declared himself as the interim president of the country and further called upon his supporters to attend a protest march against Maduro. The US and Canada, along with several other countries have recognized Guaido as interim president of Venezuela.