Venezuela Foreign Minister Visits Syria, Meets Bashar Al-Assad

During a two-day visit to Syria, Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza said Thursday that Juan Guaido’s political party has been promoting violence and death in the Latin American country.

At a press conference held in Damascus, the Venezuelan Minister assured that the opposition politician and self-proclaimed “interim president” Juan Guaido belongs to the “most extreme sector of the Venezuelan right”. His party, Voluntad Popular, “has encouraged violence and death” on the streets of Venezuela, Arreaza said.

He recalled that President Nicolas Maduro neutralized the far right by calling for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) elections, which were held on July 30, 2017.

Minister Arreaza argued that most of the Venezuelan people reject those “germ foci for a civil war” which the far-right tries to implant in the country. In any case, however, both the people and the Army “will know how to prevent any internal conflict.” 

????#Venezuela‘n FM Jorge Arreaza and #Syrian President Bashar al #Assad held talks in #Damascus. The sides discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and noted the aggressive policies of some Western countries with interference in their internal affairs pic.twitter.com/seOJHsgUfy

— SMM Syria (@smmsyria) April 4, 2019

He also said that President Maduro’s administration has denounced the “Venezuelans and Colombians who are training in Colombia, receiving weapons from [the U.S.] Imperialism and trying to attack the country.”

Arreaza began a two-day official visit to Syria on Thursday, laying a wreath at the Unknown Soldier monument, an act which pays homage to the Syrians who struggled against the foreign-backed opposition forces.

The Venezuelan chancellor was received by Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, who was briefed on the current situation in Venezuela, a country which is also facing a Western-backed conspiracy aimed at provoking a coup against President Maduro.

Minister Arreaza arrived in Syria after visiting Lebanon, where he met with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gebran Bassil.