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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 17 sepTember 2024
Venezuelan opposition calls on U.S. to cancel oil company

licenses to pressure Maduro

By REGINA GARCIA CANO De la Cruz said the
Associated Press González-Machado cam-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vene- paign wants “to find com-
zuela’s main opposition co- mon ground” with oil com-
alition on Monday called panies. But, he said, their
on the U.S. to cancel the presence in Venezuela at
licenses that allow Chevron the moment give Maduro
and other energy compa- the ability to try to “normal-
nies to operate in the South ize … de facto dictatorship
American country to pres- that he is trying to set up in
sure President Nicolás Mad- Venezuela.”
uro to negotiate a transi- Chevron did not imme-
tion from power. diately respond to an
The appeal came from an emailed request for com-
adviser to the campaign ment from The Associated
of Edmundo González Ur- Press.
rutia, who represented the Venezuela’s electoral au-
Unitary Platform coalition thorities declared Maduro
in the July 28 election, and the victor hours after polls
his main backer, opposition closed on July 28 but unlike
leader Maria Corina Mach- previous presidential elec-
ado. González and Mach- Gas is flared at the Jose Antonio Anzoategui oil complex in Barcelona, Anzoategui State, tions they never released
ado claim their campaign Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. detailed vote tallies to
won the vote by a wide Associated Press back up their claim, argu-
margin, contradicting the the country so badly that punishing Maduro’s gov- presidential contest. But ing that the National Elec-
decision of national elec- practically the whole pop- ernment for corrupt, anti- as hopes for a democratic toral Council’s website was
toral authorities to declare ulation wants this regime democratic and criminal opening faded, the Biden hacked.
Maduro the winner. gone.” California-based activities. administration clawed To the surprise of supporters
“We want them canceled Chevron is the largest com- Chevron’s license was is- back the relief. and opponents, González
… this is a lifeline to the re- pany to have received an sued in 2022 after Maduro The White House left open and Machado shortly af-
gime,” adviser Rafael de la individual permission from and the opposition coali- the possibility for compa- terward announced not
Cruz said in reference to the the administration of U.S. tion jumpstarted a nego- nies to apply for licenses only that their campaign
licenses during a panel dis- President Joe Biden to do tiation process. In Octo- exempting them from the had obtained vote tallies
cussion hosted by a Wash- business with Venezuela’s ber, the Treasury Depart- restrictions, which could from over two-thirds of the
ington-based think tank. state-owned oil company ment granted Venezuela a attract additional invest- electronic voting machines
“We want all the oil com- Petróleos de Venezuela broad reprieve from sanc- ment to the country with used in the election but
panies to go to Venezuela. S.A., better known as PD- tions after Maduro and the the world’s largest prov- also that they had pub-
So, it’s not about the com- VSA. The Treasury Depart- opposition agreed to work en oil reserves. European lished them online to show
panies. It’s about the situ- ment sanctioned PDVSA to improve electoral con- companies have benefited the world that Maduro had
ation that is impoverishing in 2019 as part of a policy ditions ahead of the 2024 from individual licenses. lost.q

Iran’s president insists Tehran wants to negotiate over its nuclear

program

By NASSER KARIMI have and just who will be away from weapons-grade Pezeshkian’s new foreign dent Joe Biden or whoever
Associated Press in the White House come levels of 90%. Iran long has minister, Abbas Araghchi, wins the November elec-
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s next year. “I think, we said insisted its nuclear program also was deeply involved in tion, said that Washington
new reformist president many times, we don’t want is peaceful, but Western na- negotiating the 2015 deal. should return to the nuclear
insisted Monday that Teh- to do this at all. We want tions and the International Pezeshkian, asked if he’d deal first, then “we will talk,
ran didn’t want to enrich to solve our technical and Atomic Energy Agency say meet or talk with U.S. Presi- there is no dispute”.q
uranium at near-weapons scientific needs, we are not Iran had a military nuclear
grade levels but had been looking for nuclear weap- program up until 2003.
forced to by the U.S. with- ons,” Pezeshkian said. “We Iran’s supreme leader, the
drawal from its nuclear adhered to the framework 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali
deal with world powers. written in the (nuclear Khamenei, has opened
The comments by President deal). the door to possible nego-
Masoud Pezeshkian, in re- We are still looking to main- tiations by earlier telling its
sponse to a question by The tain those frameworks. They civilian government there
Associated Press at his first tore them, they forced us was “no harm” in engag-
news conference, under- to do something.” ing with its “enemy.” There
lines a campaign promise He added: “If they don’t have been indirect talks
he made to try to see inter- continue, we will not con- between Iran and the U.S.
national sanctions on the Is- tinue,” in recent years mediated
lamic Republic lifted. How- Pezeshkian’s comments by Oman and Qatar, two
ever, it remains unclear came as Iran enriches ura- of Washington’s Middle
just how much room for nium up to 60% purity, which East interlocutors when it Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during his press
conference in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024.
negotiation Pezeshkian will is just a short, technical step comes to Iran. Associated Press