International

Venezuela’s Maduro replaces oil company chief

Photo: NBC News

January 6th | By AFP |

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday replaced a cousin of his predecessor Hugo Chavez as head of state oil company PDVSA with engineer and military officer Pedro Rafael Tellechea.

The change comes as Venezuela, once an oil-exporting giant, seeks to regain some of its former glory and play a bigger role in a market rattled by the war in Ukraine.

Tellechea, head of the Pequiven petrochemical company, “will consolidate the momentum of the national oil industry,” Maduro wrote on Twitter.

Outgoing PDVSA head Asdrubal Chavez, at the helm since April 2020, “will soon have new responsibilities,” he added.

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Venezuela was once one of the world’s largest oil producers, with output of more than three million barrels per day in 2008.

Production plummeted over time to about 300,000 barrels per day due to a combination of poor management and lacking investment, but has recently risen again to about 700,000 barrels per day.

Maduro blames US sanctions for the decline, but most experts say it predates the punitive measures against a president whose 2018 reelection was dismissed as fraudulent by dozens of countries.

Washington insisted this week it still did not consider Maduro to be Venezuela’s legitimate president.

But in March last year, shortly after the start of the Ukraine war, the Biden administration sent a delegation to meet Maduro and in November gave the green light for US oil giant Chevron to resume operations in Venezuela.

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Tellechea had led a successful offensive of the Maduro government to reclaim control in Colombia of petrochemical company Monomeros, a subsidiary of Pequiven.

Colombia’s former president Ivan Duque had entrusted control of Monomeros to Juan Guaido, who the US and dozens of other countries had viewed as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

Maduro clung on to power and ties between the neighbors, suspended under Duque, have been reset under Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president.

Maduro also announced that Yvan Gil Pinto, deputy foreign minister for Europe, would take over as foreign minister from Carlos Faria, in the post since May 2022.

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International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.

International

U.S. counterterrorism chief resigns over opposition to war in Iran

Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced Tuesday that he has resigned from his post, citing his opposition to the ongoing war in Iran.

In a post on X, Kent said he could not, “in good conscience,” support the conflict, arguing that Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the United States. He also claimed that the war was driven by pressure from Israel and its lobbying influence in Washington.

In a resignation letter addressed to Donald Trump, Kent alleged that at the start of the current administration, senior Israeli officials and influential figures in U.S. media carried out a disinformation campaign that undermined the “America First” platform and fostered pro-war sentiment aimed at triggering a conflict with Iran.

Kent further stated that he could not support sending a new generation of Americans to “fight and die in a war that provides no benefit to the American people and does not justify the cost in American lives.”

Since the United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on February 28, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed, while 10 others have been seriously wounded and around 200 have sustained minor injuries, according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal.

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International

German president warns Iran war could spread and disrupt Strait of Hormuz

The president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warned Monday that the war involving Iran could expand and further disrupt shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. He urged a swift end to hostilities between Iran, United States and Israel.

Speaking in Panama City during a joint appearance with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, Steinmeier said available information suggests Iran has significant capacity to disrupt maritime traffic through the key oil route.

“Iran has considerable potential to interfere with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,” Steinmeier said through an interpreter. “We should therefore reach an end to the hostilities as soon as possible and call on all parties involved to make that happen.”

The remarks came during Steinmeier’s visit to Panama, the first by a German president to the Central American nation.

The German leader described the possibility of the conflict spreading as “very dangerous,” saying recent developments indicate that such a scenario cannot be ruled out.

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Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump urged allied nations to help ensure safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran moved to block the waterway in response to U.S. strikes. However, several allies—particularly in Europe—have shown little support for the proposal.

“Some are very enthusiastic, others are not, and some are countries we have helped for many years,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have protected them from terrible external threats, and they’re not that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm is important to me.”

Meanwhile, Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said the Strait of Hormuz falls “outside NATO’s scope” and stressed that “the war involving Iran is not Europe’s war.”