Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro expressed his country's readiness to resume dialogue with the United States if the latter is ready to respect Venezuela's sovereignty and stop threatening it, on the condition that the talks be based on the Qatar Agreement.
He reviewed the record of negotiations that led to this agreement and its key conclusions.
Last year, the two countries launched secret negotiations in Qatar, ultimately agreeing to a prisoner swap.
The mentioned agreement is based on three phases, ultimately leading to the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
On the other hand, the United States is expected to take the following steps:
Under the agreement, in the first phase, both parties also committed to developing an action plan aimed at "releasing individuals deprived of freedom" of mutual concern in an agreed-upon manner, "according to the conditions discussed in the sessions that led to the preparation of this Memorandum of Understanding."
The second phase of the agreement requires that the electoral authority in Venezuela announce, before the end of the first quarter of 2024, the timetable for the presidential elections and extend an invitation to the EU’s technical election observation missions, the Carter Center, and the United Nations team of electoral experts [for their attendance].
Simultaneously, the United States issues a second general license to “suspend economic sanctions provided that it be renewed every 6 months based on mutual understandings.”
In the third phase, the United States pledges, after holding the presidential elections and inaugurating the duly elected president, to “release the frozen assets of the Venezuelan government in the United States, in addition to lifting all sanctions imposed on Venezuela,” followed by the two parties normalizing diplomatic and consular relations.
The dialogue between the two countries had been resumed earlier under the mediation of Qatar, the sponsor of a prisoner exchange agreement months ago, which Washington violated after re-imposing US oil sanctions on Caracas last April.
While the Venezuelan side seeks a relationship between the two parties based on trust and respect for the principles of self-determination, sovereignty, reciprocity, and non-interference in internal affairs, it is likely that there will be no radical review of relations between Caracas and Washington, as the latter does not favor the continuation of a regime hostile to its policies in the Bolivarian Republic.
Caracas will therefore continue to position itself as part of the Global South, and Maduro's main task, through dialogue, is to mitigate the impact of sanctions on a country suffering from a long-term economic crisis.
Maduro's announcement comes after he was announced the victor in last Sunday's presidential election, which triggered nationwide riots and violence.
On Thursday, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico joined the United States, the European Union, and several other international sides in calling for Caracas to release detailed voting data.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the opposition views Edmundo Gonzalez, the main rival to Maduro, as the winner of the presidential election.
This plays out as a déjà vu of what the US did during the last elections in Venezuela.
Venezuela was thrown into a political crisis in January 2019 when Juan Guaido, the former head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, backed by the US, declared himself interim president in an attempt to depose Maduro.
The US still acknowledged Guaido's government and called Maduro "illegitimate".
But Maduro announced on Wednesday that his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is prepared to provide 100% of its vote records after Sunday's presidential election.