Cuba is willing to restore diplomatic relations with the US as soon as the administration of US President Barack Obama declares its intent to take the nation off a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a senior Cuban official said.
That could take place before both sides are ready to open embassies, Josefina Vidal, the head of the US division at the Cuban Foreign Ministry told state media.
It is the first time Cuba has said publicly it is willing to restore relations before it is removed from the list.
Delinking the opening of embassies could make it easier for diplomatic relations — broken 54 years ago — to be renewed prior to a regional heads of state summit in Panama on April 10 and April 11.
“In our view it’s not necessary to put it all in one package, because if, for example, in a few weeks we receive some satisfactory notification in regards to the matter of Cuba’s removal from terrorist list, I think we will be ready to then begin talking about how to formalize the re-establishing of relations,” Vidal said in an interview published on Sunday.
Asked if he expected to have relations with Cuba restored before the summit, Obama told Reuters in an exclusive interview on Monday: “My hope is that we will be able to open an embassy and that some of the initial groundwork will have been laid.”
“We believe re-establishment of diplomatic relations and opening of embassies should be done together. With will on both sides, we can get them done before the summit,” a US Department of State representative said.
The White House wants to restore relations before the Panama summit to strengthen Obama’s hand with other Latin American nations, who have been critical of the US policy for decades.
US and Cuban officials have held two rounds of talks since the announcement on Dec. 17 last year that they would work toward normalizing relations.
At talks on Friday last week, Cuba said removal from the list was a “priority,” not a precondition for re-establishing relations. Cuba also raised a logistical issue — the lack of a bank willing to accept its account because of US sanctions on banks that do business with nations on the list.
The Obama administration is nearing the completion of a review of Cuba’s place on the list, which must be submitted to US Congress before the nation can be removed after a 45-day wait period, US officials said.
Vidal said that if Cuba got word the Obama administration was recommending the nations’ removal from the terrorism list, diplomatic ties could go forward without a prior resolution of the banking issue.
“We could say: ‘OK, let’s re-establish relations’ and the opening of the embassies are deferred until a later time, when there are appropriate conditions,” Vidal said.
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