US-Venezuela clash over seat at UN Security Council

July 17th
* Venezuelan Executive Vice-President José Vicente Rangel ensured that Venezuela gaining a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council would amount to a guarantee for the region rather than a factor of disturbance.

In an interview with Chilean newspaper La Tercera, published on July 16th, Rangel claimed that the Venezuelan candidacy to the UN Security Council is "the most agglutinative in Latin America," the Vice-President Office said in a press release.

"We have already secured support from the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom). We will not be a factor of disturbance, conflict. We are not interested in that. We want to promote understanding in any scenario," he added.

On July 16th, Ahmed Benhelli, the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs of the Arab League of Nations, said the Arab world is to support Venezuela candidacy.

Benhelli made the announcement upon his arrival in Venezuela for the Second South America-Arab Countries Meeting.
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