Palestine To Keep Working With Venezuela Amid Protests- Assistant To Minister For Americas

Palestine will keep working with Venezuela "as usual" despite the current unrest in the country, and believes Nicolas Maduro to be "the only legitimate president," assistant to the minister for Americas' and Caribbean affairs Rana Jarar told Sputnik on Thursday

ST. PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2019) Palestine will keep working with Venezuela "as usual" despite the current unrest in the country, and believes Nicolas Maduro to be "the only legitimate president," assistant to the minister for Americas' and Caribbean affairs Rana Jarar told Sputnik on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the country's interim president. The United States urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down and let Guaido assume the presidency.

"We continue our cooperation with Venezuela as usual. This announcement doesn't change the fact that President Maduro is still the only legitimate president. We have many cooperation agreements and cooperation projects between us and I believe the situation will be relatively stable in Venezuela unless something will happen on the ground," Jarar told Sputnik.

Jarar added that Palestine was against any state � be it "the United States or any other country" � intervening in the affairs of some other state as this would be "against the international law which protects people's right to choose their president through the elections."

On Wednesday, anti-government marches were held in Venezuela, as well as demonstrations by supporters of Maduro. According to media reports, a total of 16 people were killed in the clashes. The total number of people detained for participating in protests has reached 218 people since Monday, according to human rights organization Foro Penal.