Maduro Says Venezuela Waiting for Complete Sanctions Waiver by Washington

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday, following the US Treasury Department's announcement of a partial easing of US sanctions on the country's oil and gas industry, that Caracas was ready for a new stage of relations with the United States that would result in the complete sanctions waiver.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US Department of Treasury announced that it issued a six-month waiver easing US sanctions on Venezuela's oil and gas industry, which will be renewed only if Venezuela meets its commitments under the electoral roadmap as well as other commitments with respect to those who are wrongfully detained.

"Let's restore a relationship of respect, cooperation, yes, cooperation for the sake of peace, coexistence of the entire Western Hemisphere, the entire American and Caribbean continent. This is my message to the decision-makers, those in power and the government of the United States of America. We as Bolivarians, as successors of the legacy of [former Venezuelan President and] Commander Hugo Chavez, are ready, as he always wanted, for a new stage of relations with the United States of America - respect, equality and progress," Maduro said at a meeting with a delegation representing the government in talks with the opposition in Barbados.

Maduro said Caracas has made a first step toward the continuous lifting of all sanctions against Venezuela, adding that this is the "global consensus" of Venezuelans as "84% of citizens one way or another demand that sanctions be lifted."

During the meeting, Maduro accepted the proposal of Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez to organize a national conference for peace, where a wide range of Venezuelans can formulate a unified position "to defend the great interests of the country, to demand the complete lifting of all illegal and criminal sanctions."

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who participated in the meeting in Caracas, read out the provisions of the US license and called it "the first step in restructuring international legitimacy toward economic, trade and financial freedoms."

"In the end, what is expressed here is the victorious resistance of the Venezuelan people who do not recognize foreign jurisdiction but Venezuela's jurisdiction. But it is a sign that Venezuela and the Venezuelan people have always been right when they said that we have the right to develop oil, we have the right to develop gold, we have the right to export gas, which is the wealth, the natural resources of our country, so this is a great success for our country," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said in April that Caracas had lost $232 billion since 2015 when the administration of then-US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on the South American country.

Obama declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered the US Treasury Department to freeze the foreign property and assets of several Venezuelan officials in 2015. Washington has since expanded the sanctions regime.