WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States expects to run Venezuela and extract oil from its vast reserves for years, U.S. President Donald Trump told The New York Times on Wednesday evening.
"We're going to be using oil, and we're going to be taking oil," Trump said in an interview with the U.S. media outlet.
Speaking to The New York Times, Trump avoided setting a timetable for how long the United States would remain Venezuela's political overlord, indicating instead that the arrangement would extend well beyond the near term. "I would say much longer," Trump answered.
Meanwhile, Trump said he expected the United States would be extracting Venezuelan oil for years, claiming that the Venezuelan interim government is "giving us everything that we feel is necessary" and cooperating with the United States despite their hostile public statements.
"We're getting oil prices down, and we're going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need," he said.
However, the president acknowledged it would take years to revive Venezuela's oil sector.
"The oil will take a while," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, administration officials said the United States plans to effectively assume control of selling Venezuela's oil indefinitely.
On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers have been largely supportive of the Trump administration's actions in Venezuela, while Democrats warned that the United States was headed toward protracted international intervention without clear legal authority.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was taken by the United States by force from his country's capital city Caracas on Jan. 3, pleaded not guilty at a federal court in New York, saying he remains the leader of his country even as Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn on Monday as acting president. ■
