Maria Zakharova slams UK banks for illegally locking out billions that belong to Venezuela and Libya

Maria Zakharova slams UK banks for illegally locking out billions that belong to Venezuela and Libya
July 20, 2021, 3:25 am

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According to the TASS, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel on Monday Assets worth billions of dollars that belong to Venezuela and Libya continue to be illegally held in British banks.

The diplomat drew attention to the recent news that lawyers representing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido were going to contend the ownership of Venezuela’s gold worth almost one billion dollars that is currently kept in a London bank.

At the same time, Zakharova noted that London had issued another statement not so long ago recognizing Guaido as "the only president of Venezuela".

She pointed out "If we were talking about a detective series, then this ‘coincidence’ would be described as ‘premeditated actions of certain persons conspiring for their personal gain."

She added, "It is clear that we are talking about big money, in the equivalent of gold no less."

The diplomat stressed that the true side in court was represented by the Venezuelan Central Bank, who sought to get the gold returned (amounting to about 15% of the country’s currency reserves) to fund the fight against COVID-19.

She lamented, "But the British government does not care one bit that Caracas needs this money to counter the coronavirus . London needs it more."

Zakharova pointed out that British banks had been also locking away assets that belong to the late Muammar Gaddafi and his family.

She stressed "In line with the UNSC Resolution 1973 adopted on March 17, 2011, the assets that belonged to the Gaddafi family and his closest entourage kept in banks outside of Libya were frozen. Muammar Gaddafi was then killed, and it is still unclear, what happened to the accounts of Libya’s former leader."

"Media reports suggest that more than 12 billion pounds were frozen in the UK. These funds were initially supposed to be spent for the country’s post-conflict revival, but the money is still yet to make its way to ordinary Libyans."

According to the spokeswoman, London is considering partially unblocking these assets to give money to families, who were affected by terrorist attacks. "But it is all just words.

She concluded, the truth is that billions of dollars that belong to other people continue to remain in British banks illegally."

Source: TASS

Image source: TASS

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