Washington sanctions on Venezuela undercut talks, says Maduro ally

Bloomberg

US sanctions against Venezuela are making successful talks with the opposition impossible, said a key ally of President Nicolas Maduro, demanding that President Donald Trump immediately act to drop them.
“The stone in the way of any negotiation is sanctions,” Tarek William Saab, Venezuela’s public prosecutor, said in a rare
interview at the Public Prosecutor headquarters office in downtown Caracas.
“It is a shot in the foot of any negotiation because how can you negotiate with a gun pointed at your head?”
Maduro’s government suspended Norway-sponsored negotiations with representatives of opposition leader Juan Guaido to protest fresh sanctions by Trump freezing all Venezuelan states assets in
the US. Previous measures to step up pressure on Maduro’s government have also included immigration restrictions and sanctions on more than 100 Venezuelan individuals, including Saab, and entities including the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
Saab said the US sanctions have prevented imports of food and medicine and are in violation of international law.