Maduro asks for international support against Trump's threat

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called for international support to deal with the "threat" of military action by his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Maduro made the request before the ambassadors of Spain, France, Japan, Syria, Vietnam and Guatemala, who presented their credentials to him on Monday at the Presidential Palace here, reports Efe news.

The Venezuelan leader asked the assembled envoys to relay to their governments his request for a presidential summit "behind closed doors to attend to the issue of peace in Venezuela and now to attend to the issue of the threat of military invasion by the government of Donald Trump against Venezuela".

He called Trump's threat the "most serious threat (Venezuela) has received" in its 200 years as a republic.

Maduro said that "the threat of war, the threat of violence can only be dissipated with dialogue, diplomacy, politics, union".

Last week, the White House said that Trump had refused to speak with Maduro by telephon.

The decision came shortly after Trump told reporters that "a military option" to the Venezuelan political and economic crisis was still possible, although the Pentagon confirmed that it had "not received any orders with regards to Venezuela".

--IANS

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