The Latest Breaking News from Irfaan Ali

The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela are scheduled to meet face-to-face as regional partners urgently seek to defuse a long-standing territorial dispute that has escalated after Venezuelans voted in a referendum to claim two-thirds of their small neighbor

Oil giant ExxonMobil says it will keep ramping up production in offshore Guyana despite the escalation of a territorial dispute with neighboring Venezuela, which claims that oil-rich region as its own

The 2,300-metre (7,550-foot) mountain -- known as a tepui -- looms over the tiny village of Arau, whose residents reject a claim from Caracas that their land belongs to Venezuela, which has sparked fears of a potential conflict.

A freshly planted Guyanese flag flaps on the summit of a table-top mountain rising from thick forests in a remote region near the Venezuelan border.

The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela will meet this week to address an escalating dispute over the Essequibo region that is rich in oil and minerals

Tension has soared over Essequibo, which has historically been controlled by Guyana, since Maduro's government held a controversial referendum last weekend in which 95 percent of voters supported declaring Venezuela its rightful owner, according to official results.

The government of Guyana, under pressure from neighboring Brazil and a Caribbean trading bloc, has agreed to join bilateral talks with Venezuela over an escalating territorial dispute

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, will meet Thursday on their countries' growing dispute over the oil-rich region of Essequibo, amid mounting international warnings against escalating the row.

The United Nations Security Council took no immediate action at a closed emergency meeting requested by Guyana following Venezuela’s recent referendum claiming the vast oil- and mineral-rich Essequibo region that makes up a large part of its neighbor

The discovery of vast oil deposits is blamed for reigniting a decades-old territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana that fast worsened as Guyana started granting licenses to multinationals to exploit crude in waters claimed by both countries.

The United States, through National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, urged the sides to find a diplomatic solution to the territorial dispute, saying "we don't want to see this come to blows."