Venezuela May Turn Out to Be Another Syria for the US

 

By: Kayhan Int’l

The quixotic US president, Donald Trump, and his thuggish administration are making frenzied efforts to undermine the peace of independent countries and change their system of government, but without success.

latest target is Venezuela, where they have illegally endorsed the controversial National Assembly Chairman, Juan Guaido, as president, which is not only a blatant meddling into the internal affairs of an independent country, but follows a pattern in US foreign policy whereby leaders not readily pliable to American corporate interests get replaced in an uprising generously sponsored and minutely directed from Washington.

As observers point out, due to the abrasive nature of Trump’s administration, true US motifs are coming into the open: it is all about money, since Venezuela is one of the richest countries in terms of oil, which the American companies are intent upon looting by replacing the legitimate government of Nicolas Maduro. 

As US National Security Adviser, the bespectacled bozo John Bolton, who is one of the most devilish opponents of democracy and human rights, recently said: "It will make a big difference to the US economy if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”

For Bolton and people who propelled him into his current position, Venezuela regime change is a "big business opportunity”.

In this regard, Guaido, the self-proclaimed "president,” in view of his slavish attitude to the US, has already become a traitor to his own nation as is evident by his endorsement of the new round of the illegal US sanctions to cripple Venezuela’s economy, thereby harming the livelihood of ordinary people.

The US sanctions against the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is meant to squeeze out Rosneft – Russia’s main investor in the Venezuelan petroleum sector. At the same time, the $50 billion that China has lent to Venezuela through oil-for-loan agreements will also be jeopardized.

The US arrogantly admits that regime change attempts in Venezuela are part of a bigger strategy to exert greater US influence over Latin America. It means Nicaragua and Cuba are next on the list of American state terrorism.

The Venezuelan military, however, is loyal to Maduro and the independent countries of the world, including the Islamic Republic of Iran ready to help the legal government of Maduro. 

Russia is resolved that the US will not succeed, and so is China. This means Venezuela may well become the next Syria, if not Vietnam for the US.

Interestingly, Washington is facing another debacle and hopefully it will prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the US.

Nations should explore better system to break US hegemony

By Wang Wenwen

Tehran, Feb 2, IRNA/Global Times – When challenged by even the closest friends, one needs to think what one has done wrong. France, Germany and Britain, once intimate allies of the US, have set up a payment system to allow European businesses to bypass US sanctions and trade with Iran.

The move is seen as not only continued opposition to last year's decision by US President Donald Trump to abandon a 2015 deal under which international sanctions on Iran were lifted, but also Europe's exercise of economic sovereignty in the face of Washington's imposition of its foreign policy on other countries.

Chinese companies are also victims of US sanctions, and China welcomes such a mechanism. All too often, US economic sanctions are used to promote the full range of Washington's strategic objectives and become a policy tool of choice for the US in the post-Cold War world.

The strength of US sanctions is rooted in the power and reach of the US economy. The US dollar is used for the international oil and gas trade and a wide part of global trade. This gives the US an exorbitant privilege to sanction countries it opposes. 

The US now maintains economic sanctions against dozens of countries including Cuba, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. US sanctions are imposed when Washington thinks its interests are undermined by those regimes. 

The latest sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company aim to cut off source of foreign currency of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro's government and eventually force him to step down. Obviously the US is using sanctions on Venezuela to push forward political transition in Latin American countries.

The world is still dominated by the US dollar and corporations. So its financial and economic measures can force other states to adjust their policies accordingly so as to fund the superpower to buttress its geopolitical hegemony. In turn, the US will abuse such hegemony to bolster its dollar supremacy. This, however, will exacerbate tensions and override the liberal international order as the US is forcefully reshaping the order to make it serve its own interests. 

A new mechanism should be devised to thwart such a vicious circle. With the US-EU division now deepening, even the US' European allies can see the downside of the US manipulation of the world order and have realized the need to help their businesses develop for the sake of their own interests. 

Being a major stakeholder in the world order, China opposes unilateral sanctions. China should join hands with more countries to negotiate and explore a system fit for the dynamics of a multipolar world.