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hampered its access to global markets and labeled it as an international pariah — and had demanded that the decision be rescinded.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The White House sees better relations with Cuba as correcting an out-of-date policy and as a likely signature foreign policy achievement of Obama’s presidency.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.
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