Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the attack, which occurred in international waters, in a phone call to Yvan Gil’s Venezuelan counterpart on Sunday.
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Following the conversation, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that “the ministers expressed serious concern about Washington’s continuing actions in the Caribbean Sea that have a long-lasting impact on the region.”
In light of the current circumstances, the Russian side has confirmed that it has a “full support and solidarity with Venezuela’s leadership and people.”
In an interview on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated to Fox News that he had “every authorization needed” to launch military strikes on ships off Venezuelan waters. He declined to provide more information about the permission granted to his office.
Hegseth claimed that the ship was “transporting substantial amounts of narcotics — headed to America to poison our people” in a post on X following the Friday strike.
“These strikes will continue until the American people’s attacks are over,” he declares. “!, he said.
A vessel can be seen moving through the water in a nearly 40-second video of Hegseth’s strike before a web of projectiles deflects its impact onto the boat and the surrounding water, causing the boat to explode on impact.
He claimed that the intelligence “without a doubt” established that the crew was “narco-terrorists” and that the vessel was carrying drugs. He made no disclosures about the quantity or type of alleged drugs aboard, and he made no mention of any supporting evidence to back up his claim that the strike’s targets were drug smugglers.
US campaign against drug cartels
At least four such attacks in the United States have been carried out, leaving at least 21 people dead, since the most recent strike.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump notified Congress that his administration had determined that US drug cartel members were “unlawful combatants” who were also engaged in “non-international armed conflict.”
Trump claimed that the US military’s expansion in the Caribbean had put an end to drug trafficking in South America on Sunday. No drugs enter the water, they say. And we’ll examine phase two, he said, without giving more information about his plans.
Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, has claimed on numerous occasions that the US intends to oust him from power. When Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino criticised an “illegal incursion” by US aircraft close to its borders on Thursday, the nation claimed that US attacks were “a vulgarity, a provocation, a threat to the security of the nation.”
The legal justification for the strikes has been made by Washington using the US Constitution, war powers, the designation of drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations,” the right to self-defense, and international law on unlawful combatants.
Source: Aljazeera
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