United States President Donald Trump said the possibility of a war with Venezuela is on the table, according to an interview with NBC News published on Friday.
"I don't rule it out, no," he said.
Trump added that there will be more seizures of oil tankers near Venezuelan waters. Last week, the US seized a sanctioned tanker off the coast of Venezuela. “If they are foolish enough to sail around, then they will sail into one of our ports,” he told NBC News.
On Tuesday, Trump ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned tankers going in and out of Venezuela, in Washington’s latest move to increase pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s government by targeting its main source of revenue. Afterward, the Venezuelan government said it rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat.”
Trump's pressure campaign against Maduro has included a heightened military presence in the region and more than two dozen military attacks on ships in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, which have killed at least 90 people. Trump has previously said that U.S. ground strikes on the South American country will begin soon.
In the NBC interview, Trump declined to say whether removing Maduro was his ultimate goal, telling NBC News: "He knows exactly what I want. He knows better than anybody," Trump added, referring to Maduro.
Maduro has claimed that US actions are aimed at overthrowing him and taking control of OPEC's oil resources, which are the world's largest crude oil reserves.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.