The US dropped Cuba from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism on Friday, removing yet another hurdle as the two nation seek to restore diplomatic ties frozen for five decades.
Cuba has vehemently protested its 1982 inclusion on the blacklist — which hampered its access to global markets and labeled it as an international pariah — and had demanded that the decision be rescinded.
US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that on Friday, a “final decision” had been taken to remove Cuba from the list, after US President Barack Obama last month gave the US Congress 45 days to object.
Photo: Reuters
Iran, Sudan and Syria remain on the terror blacklist.
The move has deep political significance as the Cold War foes grapple for a rapprochement, but it might also afford Cuba better access to US banking facilities and US aid, and could lift some restrictions on exports and arms sales.
However, a tight economic embargo slapped on the Caribbean island in 1962 remains in place, meaning that there might be little immediate effect from Friday’s historic decision.
“The lifting of the state sponsor of terrorism designation does not lift the embargo, just to put that kind of bluntly,” US Department of State Office of Press Relations director Jeff Rathke told reporters.
He added that there still remained “a web of restrictions and sanctions that have been applied over the years, and some of them are unrelated to the state sponsor of terrorism designation.”
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed in December last year to restore relations, before holding groundbreaking talks on the sidelines of summit in Panama last month.
Delegations from the two nations have met four times since January seeking to carve out a path toward reopening embassies, a first step toward normalizing diplomatic relations snapped in 1961.
However, US officials on Friday admitted that there was still no timetable for that to happen, amid Cuban objections to US democracy programs and demands that US diplomats be allowed to meet freely with dissidents.
“We still have significant disagreements with Cuba and we have concerns about a number of Cuba’s policies and actions. Those concerns remain, but they fall outside the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terror,” Rathke said.
“We still have some gaps that we have to close” with no new date set for further talks, he added.
The White House sees better relations with Cuba as correcting an out-of-date policy and as a likely signature foreign policy achievement of Obama’s presidency.
However, Republican leader and US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner accused the administration of handing “the Castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing.”
“Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalized, until the Cuban people enjoy freedom — and not one second sooner,” Boehner said.
Obama has already made it easier for 12 categories of US citizens to visit the island, no longer requiring them to apply for licenses.
However, regular tourism remains off-limits.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was