Juan Guaido who is backed by the United States said on Tuesday he is working on restoring the ties with Israel, Israel Hayom reported. According to the Venezuelan opposition leader, decades of severed relations with the Middle Eastern state is almost over.
Venezuela’s Guaido is working enthusiastically on the improving relations with Israel whose capital status is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians so far. Being backed by the United States, the self-declared Venezuelan president intends to change the current Caracas position.
Under Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro’s predecessor, Venezuela cut ties with Israel over its actions in the 2008-2009 war in Gaza and severed relations with it in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Juan Guaido told he is glad to report that the process of stabilising relations with Israel is at its height. “First we’ll restore the relations, then we’ll announce the appointment of an ambassador to Israel, and we very much hope an envoy will come here from Israel,” the opposition leader added.
Guaido confirmed he was weighing whether to relocate Venezuela’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“I will declare the resumption of ties and the site of the embassy at the proper time,” he said.
The political observers say, such Guaido’s embassy announcement could mark a sharp shift in Venezuelan foreign policy, which has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Venezuelan-Israeli relations: a controversial history
Maduro’s government insists aid is not needed and that the US is using it as an excuse to get its hands on Venezuela’s abundant oil reserves, replicating the US’s military interventions in Iraq and Libya.
Juan Guaido has vowed that the opposition he will keep protesting against Maduro until new presidential elections could be held. The opposition has been holding regular protests and on Tuesday held a vigil demanding that aid being blocked by Maduro be let in.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the long-time Venezuelan ally Russia said it was ready to help resolve the current crisis but warned the US against intervening in Caracas’s internal affairs.
