A Greek court has acquitted 24 rescue volunteers, including Syrian competitive swimmer and activist Sarah Mardini, of human trafficking charges designed to discourage those seeking to save migrants and refugees from drowning.
Mardini, whose rescue of her sister inspired the 2022 Netflix film The Swimmers, and the other volunteers, had been facing the charges since their arrest in 2018.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
A court on the Greek island of Lesbos ruled on Thursday that volunteers with Emergency Response Centre International (ERCI), a Greek nonprofit, were not guilty of charges of facilitating illegal entry and forming a criminal organisation.
“All defendants are acquitted of the charges” because their aim was “not to commit criminal acts but to provide humanitarian aid”, presiding Judge Vassilis Papathanassiou told the court.
Mardini, a 30-year-old Syrian who sought refuge in Germany in 2015, was present at the court, along with her Irish-German co-defendant Sean Binder.
“Saving human lives is not a crime,” an emotional Mardini said after the verdict.
“We never did anything illegal because if helping people is a crime, then we are all criminals.”
Mardini was part of a group of volunteer activists with the ERCI organisation trying to help migrants and refugees reach the island of Lesbos from Turkiye in 2018. She was arrested at the time and spent three months in prison in Greece.
Her lawyer, Zaharias Kesses, said it was “unacceptable” for such high-profile cases to drag on for so long.
The aim of such legal action, Kesses argued, “was to criminalise humanitarian aid and eliminate humanitarian organisations. Before this case, thousands of volunteers were on Lesbos, whereas afterwards they were reduced to a few dozen.”
‘Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance’
The Netflix film The Swimmers is inspired by the story of Mardini and her sister Yusra, who was one of 10 athletes who competed in the Rio Olympics for a Refugee Team.
Their family made the perilous journey across the Aegean Sea in 2015, and the sisters saved other people from drowning along the way.
“These charges should never have been brought to trial in the first place,” Amnesty International said after the acquittal.
“The EU must also take note of today’s decision and introduce stronger safeguards against the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance under EU law, no one should be punished for trying to help,” Amnesty said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) echoed Amnesty’s statement.
“Two dozen people were subjected to a seven-year legal ordeal on baseless charges for saving lives. These abusive prosecutions have virtually shut down lifesaving work even as people continue to drown in the Aegean,” HRW said.
This is the second time Greece has brought criminal charges against the volunteers.
In 2023, they were acquitted in another case involving offences related to their humanitarian work, including “espionage”.
Several European countries, including Italy, have moved to punish people who provide life-saving assistance to migrants and refugees.
Islamabad, Pakistan – By the standards of mega arms deals, the $1.5bn deal for Pakistan to reportedly sell jets and weapons to Sudan’s military isn’t huge.
But the deal, which the Reuters news agency reported in early January was close to being finalised, could prove pivotal in the grinding war that has devoured Sudan for nearly three years between the country’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been displaced, and RSF troops have been accused of gang rapes – including of infants.
The agreement under negotiation is only the latest in a series of moves by Pakistan in recent months that demonstrate the growing footprint of its military hardware and clout in the Arab world.
Pakistan’s military has, over the past few years, sold jets to multiple countries in Asia and Africa, and is in talks with others. But in the Middle East, its military role has traditionally, for the most part, involved training forces of Arab allies.
That’s now changing, with a spree of deals and negotiations that could turn Pakistan into a key security provider in some cases, and give it the ability to tip the balance in delicate conflicts in other instances.
But analysts warn that divisions within the Arab world mean that Pakistan will need to tread carefully – or risk burning bridges with important partners.
Saudi mutual defence
Anchoring this shift in Pakistan’s military influence in the Arab world is the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) the country signed with Saudi Arabia last September, weeks after Israel bombed Qatar, setting off concerns across the region over whether the United States – historically the security provider for several Gulf states – could be trusted.
Since then, Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia is among the countries that have also expressed interest in Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder fighter jet.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, operates a large and sophisticated air force equipped primarily with US and European aircraft and is in the process of ordering at least 48 US-manufactured F-35 jets, considered among the most advanced fighter aircraft currently available.
But Adil Sultan, a former Pakistan Air Force air commodore, said Saudi Arabia may also be looking to diversify its defence suppliers amid shifting geopolitical dynamics.
Pakistan, as a traditional ally, and with the mutual defence treaty in place, is a “reliable partner” for Saudi Arabia. If Saudi Arabia buys JF-17s, it would “enhance interoperability of both the air forces and would be mutually beneficial”, he told Al Jazeera.
Amir Husain, a Texas-based defence technology analyst, agreed.
“With the SMDA between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it makes a lot of sense for there to be a degree of commonality in systems,” he said.
“Saudi Arabia is helping countries in the region, such as Libya, Somalia and Sudan, attain stability. The JF-17, and the Royal Saudi Air Force’s [RSAF] familiarity with this platform, can achieve these regional stabilisation aims,” Husain added.
The JF-17 attraction
Apart from Saudi Arabia, Iraq too has shown interest in the JF-17, according to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) – the military’s media arm.
(Al Jazeera)
The JF-17 Thunder is a lightweight, all-weather, multirole fighter jointly produced by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation.
Production is split between the two countries, with 58 percent carried out in Pakistan and 42 percent in China. Pakistan produces the airframe, while China supplies the avionics.
The latest version, the Block 3 variant, is classified as a 4.5-generation fighter. It features air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities, advanced avionics, an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, electronic warfare systems and the ability to fire beyond-visual-range missiles.
The AESA radar allows pilots to track multiple targets simultaneously and detect threats at longer distances, though the aircraft lacks the stealth characteristics of fifth-generation fighters.
According to Pakistan Air Force (PAF) sources, full assembly takes place in Pakistan, and the production line at the Kamra facility can manufacture between 20 and 25 aircraft annually.
Pakistan has marketed the JF-17 internationally for several years. Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Myanmar are currently among the aircraft’s operators. But analysts say interest in the jet has intensified since the brief but intense military confrontation between Pakistan and India last May.
During their four-day air conflict, both launched missiles and drones at each other’s territories, parts of Kashmir they administer, and military bases, after gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir.
On the first night of fighting, on May 7, Pakistan claimed it had shot down several Indian aircraft using Chinese-made J-10 Vigorous Dragon jets.
The PAF deployed a 42-aircraft formation that included JF-17 Thunders and US-made F-16 Fighting Falcons against a 72-aircraft formation from the Indian Air Force. Indian officials initially denied any losses but later acknowledged that “some” planes had been lost.
With a relatively low-price tag of $25m to $30m per aircraft, the JF-17 has long been seen as an attractive option for air forces seeking a cost-effective solution – it is much cheaper than comparable aircraft produced by Western manufacturers.
Analysts say that its recent combat exposure has added to its appeal, as battle-tested performance often carries greater weight than price alone.
Al Jazeera sent queries to ISPR and the PAF seeking confirmation and details about the negotiations with different countries, but received no response.
Beyond Saudi Arabia and Iraq, reports suggest that Sudan’s upcoming deal with Pakistan also involves the JF-17. Pakistan, reports in December suggested, was also planning to sell these jets to Libyan rebels. Outside the Arab world, Bangladesh and Indonesia have also shown interest in the jets.
Walking a tightrope
But Pakistan’s expanding military clientele also means that the country will need to juggle competing interests, say analysts.
In Sudan, its weapons and jets will go to the armed forces, which are also supported by Saudi Arabia. Sudan, meanwhile, has accused the United Arab Emirates of financing and arming the paramilitary RSF – a charge the UAE has repeatedly rejected.
In Libya, Pakistan reportedly struck a $4bn deal in December with Khalifa Haftar, the rebel leader whose army controls a major chunk of the country’s north.
Sudan’s army – which Pakistan’s army is reportedly about to arm – has previously accused Haftar of helping the RSF. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been on opposing sides in Yemen in recent weeks, with Riyadh accusing Abu Dhabi of arming southern separatists. The UAE has denied those allegations.
Against that backdrop, it will not be easy for Pakistan to sell the same weapons systems to opposing sides, Umer Karim, an associate fellow at the Riyadh-based King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, told Al Jazeera.
Karim said that he also believed that the Pakistani jets that Saudi Arabia has reportedly shown interest in are also meant for the Sudanese military.
But Pakistani platforms, and the JF-17 in particular, offer other benefits, even to Sudan’s army and Libyan rebels, said Sultan, the former PAF officer. That the JF-17 is manufactured jointly with China gives it extra geopolitical heft, he pointed out.
“These countries may buy fewer numbers [than bigger countries] as per their requirement, but Pakistan may be seen as a most reliable source to acquire aircraft due to strong support from China,” he said.
Unlike Western weapons systems, jets like the JF-17 are also appealing to Global South militaries because of their “robustness, lower lifecycle cost, ease of maintenance, and rapid operationalisation”, another retired PAF official, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera. This official was involved with the JF-17 programme while in service.
A Pakistani Air Force JF-17 Thunder is on display at the Dubai Air Show, United Arab Emirates, on November 19, 2025 [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Pakistan’s weapons exports
The JF-17 is driving a much wider weapons export push from Pakistan, say analysts.
A recent report by KTrade, a Karachi-based brokerage and research firm, said that Pakistan’s defence exports include not only fighter jets but also tanks, drones, armoured vehicles, naval systems and small arms.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says Pakistan remains one of the world’s largest arms importers, with most of its imports coming from China, while exporting less than $50m worth of arms annually.
However, data from Pakistan’s central bank shows that arms and ammunition exports jumped massively in the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, rising from $13m to more than $400m.
While never officially acknowledged, the jump in figures is widely attributed to Pakistan supplying ammunition to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia since February 2022.
The reports of potential JF-17 sales come as Pakistan seeks to stabilise its economy and rebuild diplomatic momentum. Islamabad has recently improved ties with the United States while reinforcing partnerships with China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye.
Pakistan is currently in its 25th International Monetary Fund programme, a $7bn loan spread over 37 months, underscoring its need for foreign inflows.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif recently suggested that arms exports could ease that dependence. “Our aircraft have been tested, and we are receiving so many orders that Pakistan may not need the International Monetary Fund in six months,” he said in a television interview.
KTrade estimated that existing and potential JF-17 deals, including a $1.5bn contract with Azerbaijan from 2024 and possible sales to Saudi Arabia, Libya and Sudan, could generate up to $13bn, boosting Pakistan’s foreign reserves by as much as 82 percent.
Karim, however, remains unconvinced, noting that previous efforts to market the jet did not lead to major contracts.
“It is a bit strange that all of a sudden, and without that sort of intense official and institutional engagement, so many defence deals involving the JF-17 are being discussed,” he said.
“For now, one can say they’re meant to project the narrative of the Pakistani defence industrial complex and its indigenous weapon systems coming of age and attracting customers everywhere.”
Sultan attributed the renewed interest to lessons drawn from last year’s conflict with India, “where Chinese-sourced weapon systems have proven their efficacy against the advanced Western aircraft”.
The JF-17 Thunder is currently in use by the air forces of Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Myanmar [File: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]
A multipolar arms market
Pakistan’s discussions with potential weapons buyers are unfolding against a backdrop of intensifying competition between the United States and China, as many countries reassess defence procurement strategies in an increasingly polarised world.
The US remains the world’s largest arms exporter, accounting for 43 percent of global sales in 2024, according to SIPRI. China ranks fourth, with about a 6 percent share – nearly two-thirds of which goes to Pakistan.
The retired PAF official who spoke on condition of anonymity said any JF-17 sale should be seen as strategic diversification, not geopolitical defiance.
“This reflects a pragmatic shift toward multipolar defence procurement, where performance, combat credibility, cost and sovereignty matter more than legacy alignments,” he said.
Husain, the defence technology analyst, agreed, saying Pakistan was not competing directly with US manufacturers.
“The JF-17 is a tremendous aircraft, and there is room in many fleets for both platforms,” he said.
Uzair Younus, partner at The Asia Group, a Washington, DC-based geopolitical consulting firm, concurred, adding that the diversification is largely driven by a recognition that “Western defence supply chains will be strained for the foreseeable future”.
Hundreds of South Korean firefighters are battling a major fire in a deprived area located on the fringe of the upmarket Gangnam district in the capital, Seoul.
The blaze broke out at about 5am local time (20:00 GMT) on Friday, and authorities raised the fire alert to the second-highest level, with some 300 firefighters deployed to fight the blaze amid fears it might spread to a nearby mountain, the country’s official Yonhap News Agency reports.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
There were no initial reports of casualties as dozens of residents in Guryong Village, which was described by Yonhap as “one of the last remaining shanty towns in Seoul”, were forced to flee their homes, according to fire officials.
Photographs from the scene showed a towering column of black smoke hanging over the area, as elderly residents wearing face masks evacuated.
Yonhap reported that 85 fire trucks were sent to tackle the fire, and a firefighting helicopter was prevented from participating due to poor visibility.
“I was asleep until a neighbour called saying there was a fire. I ran out and saw the flames already spreading,” Kim Ok-im, 69, who said she had lived in the area for nearly 30 years, told the Reuters news agency.
Residents evacuate from Guryong Village, the last shanty town in the Gangnam district, in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday [Kim Hong-ji/Reuters]
Guryong Village is situated on the fringe of the upmarket Gangnam district, which is known as Seoul’s wealthiest area and commands some of the highest prices paid for real estate in South Korea.
The ramshackle housing in the village formed in the 1970s and 1980s, when low-income residents in the area were forced to move as the capital underwent major redevelopment, including during the Asian Games and the Seoul Olympics.
At that time, locals settled on the edge of Gangnam without permits, according to a Seoul city planning report.
The makeshift homes found in the village are often densely packed together and built with highly flammable materials such as vinyl sheets, plywood and styrofoam, making the area particularly vulnerable to fires, according to an assessment by the fire department after a blaze in 2023.
United States forces have seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean that the Trump administration said had links to Venezuela, the sixth tanker vessel detained as Washington moves to take full control of Venezuelan oil resources.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the US Coast Guard had boarded the tanker Veronica early on Thursday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Noem said the vessel had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean”.
US Marines and sailors stationed on board the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford took part in the operation alongside a coastguard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding.
The US military said the ship was seized “without incident”.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by US forces as part of President Trump’s promise to take indefinite control of the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products. It was also the fourth ship seized since the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation in Caracas almost two weeks ago.
The latest seizure came as Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, told parliament on Thursday that there would be reforms to legislation governing Venezuela’s oil sector. The Hydrocarbons Law, among other provisions, limits the involvement of foreign entities in exploiting the country’s national resources.
Without providing details, Rodriguez told parliament the reforms would touch on Venezuela’s so-called anti-blockade law, which provides the government with tools to counteract US sanctions in place since 2019.
Rodriguez said the envisioned legal reform would result in money for “new fields, to fields where there has never been investment, and to fields where there is no infrastructure”.
Rodriguez also said funds from oil would go to workers and public services.
Oil exports are Venezuela’s main source of revenue.
Since Maduro’s abduction, Trump has claimed the US now controls Venezuela’s oil sector and has made clear that the takeover of the country’s vast oil reserves was a key goal of his military onslaught against the nation and its leader.
Addressing oil executives last week, Trump said: “You’re dealing with us directly and not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.”
Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the US.
The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss deadly protests in Iran amid threats by United States President Donald Trump to intervene militarily in the country.
Members of the influential 15-member UN body heard from Iran’s deputy UN representative, who warned at the meeting on Thursday that Iranians did not seek a confrontation but would respond to US aggression, and accused Washington of “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran”.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
US representative Mike Waltz used his prepared remarks at the meeting to criticise the Iranian government’s response to the protests, noting that the ongoing internet blackout in Iran made it hard to verify the true extent of the crackdown by authorities there.
“The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before in the Islamic Republic’s brutal history,” Waltz said, adding that Iran’s claims that the protests were “a foreign plot to give a precursor to military action” were a sign that its government was “afraid of their own people”.
Waltz did not refer to the threats of military intervention in Iran that Trump has repeatedly made over the past week, before the president appeared to ease his escalating rhetoric over the past day.
Iran’s deputy UN envoy Gholamhossein Darzi told the council that his country “seeks neither escalation nor confrontation”.
“However, any act of aggression, direct or indirect, will be met with a decisive, proportionate, and lawful response under Article 51 of the UN Charter,” Darzi said.
“This is not a threat; it is a statement of legal reality. Responsibility for all consequences will rest solely with those who initiate such unlawful acts,” he said.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee briefed the council, saying that the “popular protests” in Iran “have rapidly evolved into nationwide upheaval, resulting in significant loss of life” since beginning close to three weeks ago.
“Demonstrations started on 28 December 2025, as a group of shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar gathered to protest the sharp collapse of the currency and soaring inflation, amid a wider economic downturn and worsening living conditions,” Pobee said.
She added that human rights monitors have reported “mass arrests” in Iran, “with estimates exceeding 18,000 detainees as of mid-January 2026”, but noted that the “UN cannot verify these figures”.
She called on Iran to treat detainees humanely and “to halt any executions linked to protest-related cases”.
“All deaths should be promptly, independently, and transparently investigated,” Pobee added.
“Those responsible for any violations must be held to account in line with international norms and standards.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied on Wednesday that Tehran had plans to execute antigovernment protesters.
In an interview with Fox News, Araghchi said “there is no plan for hanging at all” when asked whether there were plans to execute protesters.
“Hanging is out of the question,” he said.
The UNSC also heard from two representatives of Iranian civil society, including Iranian-American journalist and government critic Masih Alinejad, who told the council that “real and concrete action” is “needed now to bring justice to those who order massacres in Iran”.
Addressing Darzi and the Iranian government, Alinejad said: “You have tried to kill me three times … My crime? Simply echoing the voice of innocent people that you kill.”
Thursday’s meeting came as the US imposed further sanctions against the Iranian leadership, including Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and several other officials, who it said were the “architects” of Tehran’s “brutal” response to the demonstrations.
Iran has already been under heavy sanctions for years, further worsening the economic crisis that has, in part, spurred the recent wave of public protests.
Iranian-American journalist and writer Masih Alinejad speaks during a UNSC session on the deadly Iran protests at UN headquarters in New York, on Thursday [Sarah Yenesel/EPA]
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has travelled to Washington, DC, to meet with United States President Donald Trump at the White House, following the abduction of her political adversary, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Thursday’s meeting was the first time the two leaders encountered one another face-to-face.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
But the visit was an unusually subdued one for Trump, who normally welcomes foreign leaders to the Oval Office for a news conference with reporters.
This time, however, Trump kept his meeting with Machado private, away from clicking camera shutters and shouted questions from reporters.
Trump has backed Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as interim leader of the South American country, despite Machado’s claims that the opposition has a mandate to govern.
Rodriguez’s inaugural state of the union address as president coincided with Machado’s arrival at the White House, a fact that could have contributed to the low-key nature of the meeting.
“We are used to seeing the president ushering in the cameras, making comments, talking away,” Al Jazeera correspondent Mike Hanna reported as evening fell in the capital.
“But on this particular occasion, [the meeting] was held behind closed doors. In fact, we haven’t even had a formal readout from the White House of that meeting with Machado.”
Still, Machado struck an upbeat tone as she exited the White House and strolled onto Pennsylvania Avenue, where she was thronged by reporters and supporters seeking selfies.
She and Trump spent only a few hours together in the White House, as they discussed Venezuela’s future over lunch.
Machado confirmed to the media that she followed through with her plans to give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize, an honour the US president has long coveted for himself.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters.
As she offered Trump the prize, Machado said she recounted a historical anecdote, about an interaction between Simon Bolivar – the Venezuelan military officer who helped liberate much of South America from colonial rule – and the Marquis de Lafayette, a Revolutionary War hero in the US.
“I told him this. Listen to this. Two hundred years ago, General Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face,” Machado said. “Bolivar since then kept that medal for the rest of his life.”
The Nobel Committee, however, has clarified that the prize is non-transferable and cannot be shared.
Machado was announced as the recipient of the prize in October, in recognition of her efforts to advance Venezuelan democracy.
“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause,” Machado wrote on October 10. She secretly left Venezuela, where she had been living in hiding, in December to travel to Norway and collect the medal.
‘Willing to serve’
Machado remains a popular figure within Venezuela’s opposition movement, which has faced oppression and violence under Maduro’s presidency.
Human rights organisations have accused Maduro of systematically suppressing dissent and arresting opposition leaders.
As of January 11, the human rights group Foro Penal estimated there were 804 political prisoners in Venezuela, though some estimates put their population in the thousands.
Machado was formerly a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, but Maduro’s government had her removed for allegedly conspiring against the presidency.
She was considered a leading candidate for the 2024 presidential race, and during the October 2023 opposition primary, she earned more than 92 percent support.
But in January 2024, she was again disqualified from holding office, and former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez ultimately ran on behalf of the opposition coalition.
After polls closed in July 2024, the government did not publish the usual breakdown of the voting tallies, leading to widespread outcry over a lack of transparency. The opposition obtained voting tallies that appeared to show Gonzalez winning in a landslide, further fuelling the outrage.
But Maduro’s government backed his claim to a third six-year term as president.
After the US military abducted Maduro from Venezuela on January 3, it transported him to the US to face charges of narcotics trafficking.
Machado has since appeared on US television to advance the Venezuelan opposition’s claim that it has a “mandate” to take over the presidency after Maduro’s removal.
“We have a president-elect who is Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, and we are ready and willing to serve our people as we have been mandated,” she told CBS News on January 7.
Dismissing Machado?
But Trump has thrown his support behind Rodriguez, whom he has described as cooperative.
“ She’s somebody that we’ve worked with very well,” Trump said at a news conference on Thursday. “I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
The US president has previously said that the US will “run” Venezuela. Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters that the Venezuelan government’s “decisions are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America”.
Still, Rodriguez has denounced the January 3 attack on Venezuela as a violation of international law, and in Thursday’s state of the union speech, she continued to express continued allegiance to “Chavismo”, the political movement Maduro followed.
She has also criticised US threats to her country’s sovereignty.
“We know the US is a lethal nuclear power. We have seen their record in history of humanity. We know and we are not afraid to face them diplomatically through political dialogue as appropriate and resolve once and for all this historical contradiction,” Rodriguez said on Thursday.
“Brothers and sisters, deputies, regardless of political affiliation, it doesn’t matter. We have to go together as Venezuelans to defend our sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and also defend our dignity and our honour.”
She nevertheless indicated she planned to revisit Venezuela’s hydrocarbon law to allow for greater foreign investment.
Renata Segura, the director of the Latin America and Caribbean programme at the nonprofit International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Rodriguez and her government have consistently maintained that Maduro remains the rightful leader of Venezuela.
“We should not forget that Rodriguez and many other members of the government in Caracas have been very adamant about the fact that the intervention against Maduro was illegitimate. They’ve actually demanded that he be liberated,” Segura said.
“So they haven’t done a 180-degree shift in the tone of their declarations. But it’s not like they have a lot of manoeuvring room. So they are really trying to appease Trump at this moment.”
Still, Trump has long dismissed Machado’s prospects as a replacement for Maduro or Rodriguez, saying on January 3 that she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country”.
Segura believes the Trump administration’s choice to reject Machado as the leader of Venezuela is understandable, in the name of stability.
But, she added, Machado is the clear leader of the opposition, and her coalition therefore needs to be part of the country’s government moving forward.
