Key Points

"We have seen this letter. Frankly, I think there were a lot of lies that were repeated by Maduro in that letter, and the administration's position on Venezuela has not changed," Leavitt told reporters at the media briefing.

She said the US continues to view the Maduro government as illegitimate and stressed that President Donald Trump remains firm on countering drug trafficking allegedly linked to Venezuela.

"We view the Maduro regime as illegitimate, and the president has clearly shown that he's willing to use any and all means necessary to stop the illegal trafficking of deadly drugs from the Venezuelan regime into the United States of America," she added.

The letter comes after recent US operations against boats suspected of carrying narcotics from Venezuelan waters.

Last week, Trump said that American forces had carried out a third strike targeting a ship that he claimed was "trafficking illicit narcotics", killing at least three men on board.

This came after Venezuela accused the US of waging an "undeclared war" in the Caribbean and called for a United Nations probe into the strikes.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the latest "lethal kinetic strike" took place on his orders in the US Southern Command's "area of responsibility", a region that encompasses 31 countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean, as per Al Jazeera.

"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans," Trump said."The strike killed three male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel, which was in international waters. No US Forces were harmed in this strike."

- ANI