Trump not ruling out war with Venezuela: report

US President Donald Trump has reportedly left the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table.

“I’m not ruling it out, no,” he told NBC News in a phone interview broadcast Friday.

Trump also said that oil tankers near Venezuelan waters would be seized.

Last week, the United States seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.

“If they’re stupid enough to sail, they’ll end up back in one of our ports,” he told NBC News.

Trump on Tuesday ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and exiting Venezuela in his latest move to increase pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s government by targeting Washington’s main source of revenue. The Venezuelan government then said it rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat.”

Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro has included an increased military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on ships near Venezuela in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, killing at least 90 people.

Trump had previously said that US land attacks on the South American country would begin soon.

In the NBC interview, Trump declined to say whether his ultimate goal is to eliminate Maduro, telling NBC News: “He knows exactly what I want.”

“He knows better than anyone,” Trump said, referring to Maduro.

No details were included in the report.

Maduro claimed that the US action was aimed at overthrowing him and seizing control of the OPEC nation’s oil resources, the world’s largest crude reserves.

The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.