Colombia accuses Venezuela's Maduro administration of trying to acquire missiles from Iran

Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez has claimed that Venezuela’s administration under the leadership of President Nicolas Maduro is attempting to buy missiles from Iran.

Marquez also accused the Venezuela government of supplying armed groups in Colombia with weapons made in Russia and Belarus. If these claims hold ground, these developments are likely to infuriate the United States.

Colombia, Venezuela at loggerheads

As per BBC reports, the Colombian President during a virtual event said international intelligence organisations that were allied with Colombia have informed of Nicola Maduro's great interest in acquiring medium and long-range missile systems from Iran.

The Colombian President further claimed that the missile systems have not arrived in Venezuela but there has definitely been contact between relevant parties under the explicit instructions of Venezuela Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.

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Colombia, like the United States, does not recognise the Maduro administration as Venezuela’s legitimate government and have thus branded him a dictator who is exercising powers illegally. Similarly, many countries have refrained from ties with Maduro’s government and had backed Juan Guaido's bid to leadership during 2019 upheaval.

In response to Marquez's accusations, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza termed them baseless. She claimed the accusations were made up in an attempt to distract people from the fact that Colombia still suffers from constant massacres, uncontrolled violence, and drug trafficking.

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Colombia's accusations against Venezuela come as Iran unveiled two new weapons on Friday, one of which is named after Iranian General Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a US drone strike earlier this year.

The two new weapons systems were unveiled on Iran's national television by defence minister Amir Hatami who stated that the new surface-to-surface missile system named after the Iranian general has a range of 1,400 km. The other weapon system that was unveiled is the cruise missile named 'Martyr Abu Mahdi' has a range of over 1,000 km, as per reports.

Venezuela and the surrounding region have been in a volatile state for years now. In the last national election, the results were contested with led to both Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido declaring themselves as Venezuela President.

The move was followed by political turmoil in the country forcing thousands of people to flee from Venezuela. Currently, more than 1.7 million Venezuelans reside in Colombia. Venezuela also contains one of the largest reserves of oil in the world making the country extremely strategically important.

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