UN, February 27. /TASS/. The Venezuelan government invites opposition leader Juan Guaido to sit at the negotiating table in order to forge a mutually acceptable solution to the ongoing political crisis, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
"The coup has failed. It’s time to return to common sense. We expect [Juan] Guaido to sit at the negotiating table with the government in order to forge our own solution to the crisis, without anyone else’s interference from the outside," Arreaza said.
Among possible solutions, Venezuela’s top diplomat named "elections and other political options."
Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas on January 23. Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him as president. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro blasted these actions as an attempted coup and said that he was cutting diplomatic ties with the United States.
In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.