West refusing to unfreeze Caracas funds for vaccine purchase

TEHRAN (Defapress) - Venezuelan President says the EU nations and the United States have refused Venezuela's request to unfreeze its assets so that the sanctions-hit country could purchase a coronavirus vaccine.

News ID: 82849

Date: 04 January 2021 - 22:48

EU nations and the United States have refused Venezuela's request to unfreeze its assets so that the sanctions-hit country could purchase a coronavirus vaccine, President Nicolas Maduro has said, according to the Business Standard.

"The governments of Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the US and their financial institutions have frozen and blocked funds for access to a vaccine. We demanded via the WTO that they provide us with access to funds, and we were refused," Maduro told a meeting on health care on Sunday.

He added that Vice President Delcy Rodriguez had held talks with these countries' foreign ministers, but they had refused the request.

The US and other Western countries that endorsed opposition leader Juan Guaido have slapped sanctions on Venezuela and frozen its assets abroad.

The governments of the United States and European countries claim that sanctions imposed on other countries, such as Venezuela and Iran, do not prevent them from purchasing the corona vaccine.