Russia slams latest US pressure on Venezuela amid epidemic as 'tool of genocide'

Russia has slammed the Trump administrations “narco-terrorism” allegations against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as “absurd,” further noting that persisting US sanctions against Venezuela could develop into “a tool of genocide” when coupled with the coronavirus epidemic.

“We cannot stress enough our call for an immediate lifting of unilateral unlawful sanctions that are turning in the current epidemic into an instrument of genocide,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova Friday as quoted in a report by the Moscow-based Interfax news agency.

The remarks came after the US government indicted Maduro and more than a dozen other senior Venezuelan officials on allegations of “narco-terrorism” on Thursday in Washington’s latest escalation of a long-running pressure campaign against Caracas intended to overthrow the elected president of the Central American nation.

The US State Department went as far as blatantly offering a reward of $15 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the top Venezuelan officials.

Zakharova further underlined that Moscow considers such accusations “absurd” and “wild” at a time when nations across the globe join efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak, according to the report.

The foreign ministry official also pointed out that Russia had supplied coronavirus test kits to Venezuela, which has so far reported 107 confirmed cases of the deadly virus, adding that Moscow would continue assisting its Latin American ally in efforts to halt the spread of the highly contagious disease.

The development came after Iran’s Foreign Ministry also blasted Washington’s “baseless” accusations against the Venezuelan president earlier on Friday, describing it as the pinnacle of “obscene unilateralism” and a flagrant violation of international law.

Iran slams ‘baseless’ US accusations against Venezuela’s president

Iran’s Foreign Ministry slams Washington’s “baseless” accusations against the Venezuelan president as the pinnacle of “obscene unilateralism” and a flagrant violation of international law.

“No item in international law allows the US to misuse its judicial procedures to meddle in the domestic affairs of other countries,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Abbas Mousavi, emphasized during a press briefing.

Mousavi further underlined that the recent American allegations sought to “lay the groundwork for a coup d’état, regime change or an assault against a sovereign country.”

He went on to insist that Washington’s “international application of its domestic laws” against Venezuela threatens the sovereignty of the United Nations and the international community, calling on all UN member nations to take a firm stance against “aggressive unilateral actions” by the US.

Venezuelan officials have also reacted strongly to the Trump administration’s latest provocations against Caracas, with Maduro dismissing American "spurious and false" accusations on Thursday, insisting that such claims were part of a plot arranged by the US and neighboring Colombia to force him out of power.

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