A handout picture released by the Venezuelan Presidency shows Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro giving a new speech to the annual United Nations General Assembly, from the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on September 23, 2020. (Via AFP)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called on the international community to rally against unilateral US sanctions against various countries and characterized Washington as the most serious threat to global peace and stability.

In a video speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Maduro censured the illegal sanctions by an intransigent and hostile Washington, and urged the UN member states to counter US sanctions imposed on his country, as well as its Latin American allies, including Cuba and Nicaragua.

We must demand the cessation of all unilateral coercive measures, of all the alleged sanctions, and that they allow our people to exercise their own rights, Maduro said in his virtual address to the UN.

Underlining that the US is the most serious threat to peace in this world, the Venezuelan president said the illegal sanctions were endangering the stability of his country and the region, and called on Washington to respect the sovereignty of nations.

Maduro blasted the US for the billions of dollars that have been taken from Venezuela and frozen and held in bank accounts in the United States and Europe.

Any company or government that commercializes any good or service with our country, be it food, medicine, fuel, additives needed to produce gasoline - which our people need - is being persecuted, the president said.

Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves, and its refineries can produce more than 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel, but they are working at less than 20% of their capacity mainly due to power outages and lack of spare parts amid US sanctions.

Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company to pressure Maduro to resign, and has thrown its weight behind a putschist opposition figure.

In another video speech earlier, Maduro had condemned US hegemony, calling on the international community to put up a united front and fight the US blockade against countries.

This week, the US imposed sanctions on five Venezuelan politicians.

The US also imposed new sanctions on the Cuban government on Wednesday.

Cuba has been under a US economic blockade for over 60 years. The two countries severed relations in 1961 during the Cold War. Former US President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Havana in 2015, but Trump began to roll back the historic rapprochement soon after he took office in early 2017.

The Trump administration has tightened rules on US citizens traveling to Cuba, among other restrictions.

SOURCE: PRESS TV