Momentum asks Ian Borg if he stands by his Trump Nobel Peace Prize nomination
Party raised question after US bombed Venezuela and captured its president overnight
Momentum on Saturday asked whether foreign affairs minister Ian Borg stood by his decision to nominate US president Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, after US military forces bombed Venezuela overnight and captured its president and his wife.
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, the party said the capture marked "the fall of a dictator... in the wrong way".
It said Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro starved his people to retain power, but also slammed the US intervention as an illegal "lust for power, oil and money" that bypasses international law.
The party also used the international crisis to take a swipe at the Maltese government.
"Momentum asks Ian Borg whether he stands by his original opinion that Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize," it said.
Malta's foreign minister had controversially nominated Trump in October for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his work mediating the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Questions sent to the Foreign Ministry have not been answered by the time of writing.
Sources close to government, however, told Times of Malta that EU foreign ministers under the leadership of top diplomat Kaja Kallas are working to issue a joint statement on the latest developments in Venezuela and the US.
A dramatic capture
Earlier on Saturday, the US announced its military forces had bombed Venezuela's capital city, Caracas, overnight, with Donald Trump saying the country's president had been "captured and flown out" of the country.
Later on television, Trump said Maduro and his wife had been taken to a ship and would then be sent to New York, where they face drug and terrorism charges.
In its statement, Momentum was scathing in its assessment of both the deposed leader and the American president.
Secretary General Mark Camilleri Gambin labelled Maduro’s administration as the "antithesis of democracy", yet argued that Trump’s decision to take the law into his own hands is "unacceptable".
"Trump's unilateral action has not been dictated by love for democracy but by the lust for power, oil and money," the party said, arguing that the US leader used his position at the helm of the world's most powerful military to ignore global diplomatic protocols.
Momentum candidate Arnold Cassola called for the United Nations to take immediate control of the "precarious" situation in Venezuela. He insisted that any transition of power must be handled through a multilateral approach rather than through the military force of a single nation.