UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations will not join any group of nations promoting initiatives to resolve the crisis in Venezuela, the UN chief said on Monday, indicating he will not attend a meeting in Uruguay this week of several countries.

Mexico and Uruguay had hoped that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would attend a conference in Montevideo on Thursday aimed at promoting dialogue between Venezuela’s self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido and leader Nicolas Maduro.

“The UN secretariat has decided not to be part of any of these groups in order to give credibility to our continued offer of good offices to the parties to be able at their request to help find a political solution,” Guterres told reporters. Guaido has won backing from the United States, European powers including France, Germany and Spain, Canada, Australia and a dozen Latin American countries to take over the leadership, but Russia and China continue to support Maduro.

The global split over Venezuela has left the United Nations in a quandary and Guterres’ comments suggested that the world body would remain on the sidelines for now.

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