Venezuela lashed out at the US (US) after a senior official supported Guyana in a simmering territorial dispute with its South American neighbour in an space the place a US firm extracts oil.
President Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of “insolent meddling” after Brian Nichols, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, supported Guyana’s “sovereign proper to develop its personal pure assets.”
Writing on X, the previous Twitter, Nichols mentioned “efforts to infringe upon Guyana’s sovereignty are unacceptable. We name on Venezuela to respect worldwide regulation.”
The newest chapter in a decades-old territorial quarrel was triggered by Guyana auctioning off oil blocks in a disputed area that Caracas claims as a part of its territory.
Venezuela has lengthy argued that the 160,000-square-kilometre (62,000-square-mile) area of Essequibo, administered by Guyana, ought to fall inside its borders.
A former Dutch and British colony, Guyana claims its border with Venezuela was fastened by an arbitration tribunal in 1899.
However Venezuela says the Essequibo river to the east of the area kinds a pure border between the 2 nations, acknowledged since 1777 till the arbitration ruling, which it rejects.
The row intensified after US oil large ExxonMobil found crude oil deposits off the area’s coast in 2015.
A dispute is pending earlier than the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague at Guyana’s request, and regardless of objections from Venezuela.
“We firmly reject the insolent meddling of the US,” mentioned Maduro of the Nichols assertion.
The Venezuelan overseas ministry in an announcement mentioned the US was “fostering a harmful escalation to an issue that has been addressed by means of diplomatic and peaceable mechanisms for years.”
Georgetown mentioned Tuesday it “reserves the correct to pursue financial improvement actions in any portion of its sovereign territory.”
(AFP)