President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States may open talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces escalating pressure from Washington amid a massive US military buildup in the Caribbean.

It was one of the first signs of a possible path toward defusing an increasingly tense situation in the region as the US wages a campaign of deadly strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats off the Venezuelan coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out,” Trump told reporters on Sunday in West Palm Beach, Florida, before getting on a flight back to Washington. “They would like to talk.”

Trump offered no further details about the possibility of talks with Maduro, whom the US has accused of ties to the illegal drug trade, which Maduro denies.

Senior Trump administration officials held three meetings at the White House last week to discuss options for possible military operations against Venezuela, including land strikes inside the country, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump said on Friday that he “sort of made up my mind” on Venezuela, suggesting that a decision could come soon.

The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s latest remarks.

Earlier on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would designate an alleged drug organization, Cartel de los Soles, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” which makes it a crime for anyone in the US to provide material support to the group.

US officials have accused Cartel de los Soles of working with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Washington previously designated a foreign terrorist organization, to send illegal narcotics to the US

The Trump administration has alleged that Maduro leads Cartel de Los Soles, which Maduro also denies.

Asked if Rubio’s announcement means the US could strike Maduro’s assets and infrastructure in Venezuela, Trump said: “It allows us to do that, but we haven’t said we’re going to do that.”

Asked what it means that Maduro was interested in talking, Trump, who had called off diplomatic engagement with Venezuela in early October, said he didn’t know, but added: “I talk to anybody.”

Trump suggested, however, that he would keep up the pressure on Maduro, who has been in power since 2013 and is not recognized by the US as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

“We’re stopping drug dealers and drugs from coming into our country,” Trump said.

Military buildup

The Pentagon said earlier on Sunday that the US Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, with 5,000 military personnel and dozens of warplanes on board, and its strike group moved into the Caribbean. That added to the eight warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft already sent to the region.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International have condemned the boat strikes as illegal extrajudicial killings of civilians, and some US allies have expressed growing concerns that Washington may be violating international law.

The White House says the US is at war with drug cartels and courts aren’t needed in armed conflicts, while also accusing the Venezuelan government of being in league with drug traffickers, which it denies. Venezuela is preparing its defenses in case the US attacks.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Friday found that only 35% of respondents said they supported using US military force in Venezuela to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the US without the permission of the Venezuelan government.

Trump’s comments on possible talks came as the Pentagon announced another attack on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific, in which it said three “narco-terrorists” were killed.

It was the 21st known boat strike by the US military since early September in what it has called a justified effort to disrupt the flow of narcotics into the US The strikes have killed more than 80 people, according to Pentagon figures.

The Trump administration has said it has the legal authority, with the Justice Department providing a legal opinion that justifies the strikes and which argues that US military personnel who carry out the operations are immune from prosecution.