Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro : accuses the United States

The United States is seeking to block a deal between OPEC and non-OPEC nations to stabilize oil markets, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday.

Maduro  accused  Washington of applying “war-like” pressure to prevent an agreement.

“You can’t imagine all the pressure that is coming from Washington to ensure the failure of the efforts we have made during the last year to create a common strategy among OPEC and non-OPEC producers to stabilize the market and prices,” Maduro said during his weekly televised broadcast.

“These are almost war-like pressure on governments, on heads of state,” he said, adding that U.S. policy makers have a “fatal obsession” with Russia, OPEC and Venezuela’s leftist government.

Maduro’s government said last week that at least 18 countries have confirmed they will attend the meeting on Sunday in Doha, which is aimed at reaching consensus among producers nations to stabilize prices.

The nearly 60 percent decline in crude prices since mid 2014 has been particularly tough on Venezuela, which depends on oil for nearly all of its foreign exchange revenue.

Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar agreed in February to freeze production at January levels, but said at the time the deal was contingent on other producers joining in.