Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said on Thursday the United States was spreading "lies and falsehoods" after the State Department claimed U.S. government vessels would be able to pass the Panama Canal without paying.

President Jose Raul Mulino denied that his government had granted free passage for American government ships through the Panama Canal in response to Donald Trump’s threats to reclaim the waterway, accusing the US of “lies and falsehoods.

Panama's president says the State Department's claim of an agreement granting U.S. warships free canal passage was "based on a falsity. And that's intolerable."

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said on social media on Thursday that he would speak to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at 3:30pm on Friday afternoon, amid an increasingly tense standoff over the Panama Canal.

President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday denied a claim by the Trump administration that this Central American country had agreed to eliminate tolls for U.S. government ships using the Panama Canal, in an apparent setback to U.

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday accused the United States government of lying a day earlier when the U.S. State Department claimed that U.S. government vessels would be able to cross the country's namesake canal without paying fees.

The Panamanian leader says he was “incredibly surprised” by the statement, as President Trump threatens a U.S. takeover of the strategic waterway.