\n<\/p>\n
United States President Donald Trump has issued a new warning to Nicolas Maduro, saying \u201cit would be smart\u201d for the Venezuelan leader to step down, as Washington escalates a pressure campaign that has drawn sharp rebukes from Russia and China.<\/p>\n
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump suggested he was prepared to further ratchet up the tensions after four months of mounting pressure on Caracas.<\/p>\n
list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/p>\n When asked if the \u2060goal was to force Maduro from power, Trump told reporters: \u201cWell, I think it probably would\u2026 That\u2019s up to him what he wants to do. I think it\u2019d be smart for him to do that. But again, we\u2019re gonna find out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it\u2019ll be the \u200blast time he\u2019s ever able to play \u200ctough,\u201d the US leader added.<\/p>\n Trump levied his latest threat as the US Coast Guard continued for a second day to chase a third oil tanker that it described as part of a \u201cdark fleet\u201d that Venezuela uses to evade US sanctions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s moving along, and we\u2019ll end up getting it,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n The US president also promised to keep the two ships and the nearly 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil the coastguard has seized so far.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll sell it. Maybe we\u2019ll keep it. Maybe we will use it in the strategic reserves,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re keeping it. We\u2019re keeping the ships also.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign against Venezuela\u2019s critical oil sector comes amid a large US military buildup in the region with a stated mission of combating drug trafficking, as well as more than two dozen strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near the South American nation.<\/p>\n Critics have questioned the legality of the attacks, which have killed more than 100 people.<\/p>\n Venezuela denies any involvement in drug trafficking and insists that Washington is seeking to overthrow Maduro to seize the country\u2019s oil reserves, which are the world\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n Caracas has condemned the US\u2019s vessel seizures as acts of \u201cinternational piracy\u201d.<\/p>\n Maduro responded to Trump\u2019s latest salvo hours later, in a speech broadcast on public television, saying the US president would be better served if he focused on his own country\u2019s problems rather than threatening Caracas.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would be better off in his own country on economic and social issues, and he would be better off in the world if he took care of his country\u2019s affairs,\u201d Mauro said.<\/p>\n The escalating rhetoric preceded a United Nations Security Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday to address the growing crisis.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs\u00a0Sergei Lavrov expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d over Washington\u2019s Caribbean operations in a telephone conversation with Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil, warning of potential consequences for regional stability and international shipping.<\/p>\n Moscow \u201creaffirmed its full support for and solidarity with the Venezuelan leadership and people in the current context,\u201d according to a Russian foreign ministry statement.<\/p>\n China also condemned the US\u2019s latest moves as a \u201cserious violation of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said Beijing \u201copposes any actions that violate the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and infringe upon the sovereignty and security of other countries\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cVenezuela has the right to develop independently and engage in a mutually beneficial cooperation with other nations. China understands and supports Venezuela\u2019s stance in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Rubio had last week dismissed Moscow\u2019s support for Caracas.<\/p>\n Washington, he said, was \u201cnot concerned about an escalation with Russia with regards to Venezuela\u201d as \u201cthey have their hands full in Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n US-Russia relations have soured in recent weeks as Trump has voiced frustration with Moscow over the lack of a resolution on the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Gil, the Venezuelan foreign minister, meanwhile read a letter on state television, signed by Maduro and addressed to UN member nations, warning that the US blockade would disrupt global oil and energy supplies.<\/p>\n \u201cVenezuela reaffirms its vocation for peace, but also declares with absolute clarity that it is prepared to defend its sovereignty, its territorial integrity and its resources in accordance with international law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, we responsibly warn that these aggressions will not only impact Venezuela. The blockade and piracy against Venezuelan energy trade will affect oil and energy supply, increase instability in international markets, and hit the economies of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the world, especially in the most vulnerable countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" United States President Donald Trump has issued a new warning to Nicolas Maduro, saying \u201cit would be smart\u201d for the Venezuelan leader to step down, as Washington escalates a pressure campaign that has drawn sharp rebukes from Russia and China. Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, flanked by Secretary of State Marco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2153,964,10799,150,2658,523,2545,81,4723,1060],"class_list":{"0":"post-38736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-donald","10":"tag-maduro","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-play","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-tough","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-venezuela","17":"tag-warns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Maduro fires back<\/h2>\n
US blockade<\/h2>\n