FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Russia’s Nebenzia Warns of Regional and Global Consequences of Any Military Intervention into Venezuela

Feb. 27, 2019 (EIRNS)—In a powerful intervention at the UN Security Council yesterday, called by the United States to discuss the Venezuelan crisis, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia warned of the dangerous strategic implications of any U.S.-led military intervention into Venezuela for the purposes of regime change. This, he said, could “entail the most severe and unpredictable consequences for the region and the entire world.” He urged all UN members to reject “gross interference” into Venezuela’s internal affairs. [Emphasis added.]

Nebenzia also delivered a stark message to those nations now supporting Venezuela’s “interim president” Juan Guaidó:

“Are you naive enough to think you are immune to something of this sort? Have you not heard the claims of U.S. leaders that Cuba and Nicaragua are next? Do you think they will not come for you?”

And, he added, this is not just a warning for Cuba and Nicaragua. It’s a warning for any nation that disobeys “Washington’s rules”; and those that do obey, “are accomplices in the violations of the UN Charter and international law,” and, should it occur, also in an armed intervention against sovereign Venezuela.

The Russian ambassador also denounced by name the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine, under the aegis of which the U.S. and its allies are using the pretext of humanitarian aid to seek regime change. R2P, which, he said, “is not recognized by international law,” was the Obama Administration’s preferred method to further British imperial goals internationally, as in in the Libyan case. [The resolution passed in the UNSC in 2005 on R2P said that the use of R2P was the sole prerogative of the UNSC—not individual nations.]

There are very strict protocols established by the UN General Assembly, Nebenzia explained, which specify how humanitarian aid can be delivered to any country, “with the consent of the affected country, and in principle, on the basis of an appeal by the affected country.”

In all cases, he said, “It clearly states: when carrying out humanitarian activities, I quote, ‘the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity must be fully respected in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.’ ” Yet, in the “show” that took place on Feb. 23, these protocols were disregarded, replaced by an attempt to force “uninspected and uninvited American cargo” into Venezuela.

The Venezuelans were right to be suspicious about such “aid,” Nebenzia said. With Iran-Contra felon Elliott Abrams sitting across from him, representing the Trump Administration, he recalled that in 1986, “ ‘humanitarian aid for Nicaragua’ turned out to be a shipment of weapons for the ‘Contras.’ When we recall this episode today, we cannot escape a déjá vu.” If the U.S. had really wanted to provide humanitarian assistance, he said, it would have acted through the UN, as Russia just did in the previous week, delivering 7.5 tons of medicine to Venezuela through the World Health Organization.