At a heated emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York last night, China and Russia accused the United States of exerting military and economic pressure on Venezuela, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
During the meeting, convened at the request of Caracas, the US ambassador to the UN Mike Walz said that the head of state of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro is not a legitimate president, but a criminal who invests the proceeds from oil sales in drug deals.
The Russian ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said that "the blockade illegally imposed off the coast of Venezuela is a completely real act of aggression" and that Moscow strongly condemns the seizure of oil tankers by the US military.
China, which imports oil from Venezuela, described the unilateral US actions as intimidation and criticized interference in the internal affairs of the Caribbean country. This threatens peace and stability in Latin America, said Beijing's representative Sun Lei, adding that freedom of navigation must be guaranteed.
Venezuela's UN ambassador, Samuel Moncada, rejected the US accusations and in turn accused Washington of waging an illegal blockade war. "The world must know that the threat is not Venezuela, the threat is the current US government," Moncada said. The US goal "is not drugs, it is not security, it is not freedom, but oil, mines, land," he added.
The Venezuelan representative said it was absurd to believe that oil revenues were being used to finance drug trafficking.
"We are dealing with a force that operates outside international law and demands that Venezuelans leave their country and give it back to them [...] Otherwise, he (Donald Trump) will launch an armed attack, as he has been announcing for weeks. This is the greatest blackmail known in our history," Moncada told the Security Council.
Venezuela requested the meeting with the support of Moscow and Beijing, AFP specified.