Washington DC, May 29: The United States has on Tuesday boycotted the Conference on Disarmament meeting to protest against Venezuela presuming the rotating presidency of the United Nations-sponsored summit, as it did last when Syria headed the forum.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, US President Donald Trump administration, which has ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela by imposing several sanctions against President Nicolas Maduro to oust him, has not ruled out army action to demolish what it and allies nations consider an illegitimate government.
US disarmament representative Robert Wood has left the forum, announcing a “boycott” while Venezuelan Maduro’s envoy Jorge Valero heads the conference, as Venezuela held up its one-month presidency of the Geneva Talks.
“We have to try to do what we can to prevent these types of states from presiding over international bodies,” Wood told reporters.
“Clearly, when you have regimes like the Assad regime (of Syria) and the Maduro regime presiding over this body, there is something fundamentally wrong with how we are conducting our business. And we need to examine that,” he said.
An envoy of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself as interim president of the nation in January who got support from the US and some allies, needs to assume the seat, said Wood.
“The representative of the Donald Trump government remained isolated,” Valero told reporters. Valero blasted the US administration for Tuesday’s move, terming is “ridiculous”. It called the US president as a “war-mongering racist”, further insisting only Wood walked out of the door during the forum on Tuesday.
“What he did was ridiculous,” he added. “It’s a paradox that a nuclear power … was defeated today by a small country such as Venezuela,” Valero added. “In summary, today David beat Goliath.”
Latin American nations included Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, who have also recognized Guaido as the legitimate Venezuelan president, however, Russia and Syria denounced it, called its politicization.