Russia forming Venezuela support team at UN

MOSCOW

Russia is creating a group of countries on the UN platform to resist U.S. plans in Venezuela, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.

Lavrov told reporters in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he hopes it gets “serious support" in the UN.

"Because it is a very simple thing, it is difficult to distort it somehow: the protection of the fundamental norms and principles of international law, as they are written in the UN Charter," he said, without elaborating on details of the group

Venezuela has been rocked by protests since January when Maduro was sworn in for a second term following a vote boycotted by the opposition.

Tensions escalated when Juan Guaido, who heads Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself acting president days later, a move supported by the U.S. and many European and Latin American countries.

Russia, Turkey, China, Iran, Bolivia and Mexico have thrown their weight behind Maduro.

During his recent telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Lavrov said they "agreed to continue contacts on Venezuela."

"But I do not see how it is possible to combine our positions,” he said. “On the one hand, ours, based on the UN Charter, on the principles and norms of international law, and on the other hand the position of the United States, which from Washington appoint ‘acting president’ of another country, require the legitimate authorities to resign and threaten to use force at the same time. The positions are incompatible, but we are ready to talk.”

Commenting on the U.S. intention to return to the Monroe doctrine of opposing European colonialism in the Western hemisphere, Lavrov said it sign of "disrespect" to Latin American nations because it suggests depriving them of the right to choose their own politics.

And it was not true that Russia persuaded Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to stay in the country, he said.