\u201cThe Islamic Republic has invaded Venezuela alongside its allies Russia and its proxy Hezbollah. To those who claim with outrage that Venezuela\u2019s democratic opposition asked the US government to \u2018invade,\u2019 let\u2019s be serious and deal in facts,\u201d Alinejad wrote on X on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real and ongoing violation of Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty is already happening. Iran\u2019s regime, Hezbollah and their terrorist proxy networks are operating inside Venezuela, strengthening repression, corruption and criminal networks that serve dictators, not citizens,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Machado arrived in Oslo this week after her daughter accepted the Peace Prize on her behalf. The veteran opposition figure said the United States had facilitated her exit from Venezuela, where she had been living in hiding.<\/p>\n
US forces have mounted the largest military buildup in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The move appears to be a bid to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to resign after he declared victory in polls against Machado’s allies last year even as pollsters found he had lost.<\/p>\n
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been attacking alleged drug boats off Venezuela and in the Pacific, in strikes Democratic opponents and some human rights groups say violate the laws of war. <\/p>\n
Trump and his military and legal leadership say the campaign is a legitimate operation against narco-terrorism led by Maduro, and US forces on Wednesday seized a tanker off Venezuela<\/a> it said carried sanctioned Venezuelan and Iranian oil.<\/p>\n The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday that Iran was among various forces backing Maduro.<\/p>\n \u201cAuthoritarian regimes learn from each other. They share technology and propaganda systems. Behind Maduro stand Cuba, Russia, Iran, China and Hezbollah \u2014 providing weapons, surveillance and economic lifelines. They make the regime more robust, and more brutal,\u201d its chief Jorgen Watne Frydnes said.<\/p>\n \u201cOpposition groups did not start the imprisonments in Belarus, the executions in Iran \u2014 or the persecution in Venezuela. The violence comes from authoritarian regimes, as they lash out against popular calls for change,\u201d Frydnes added.<\/p>\n