HAVANA, January 15. /TASS/. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said that the US administration’s intention to remove his country from its list of states sponsoring terrorism is a step in the right direction, albeit a belated one.
"I am grateful to all who contributed to the US making the decision publicized today (January 14 - TASS) to exclude Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism where it should have never been," he wrote on the X social network.
"This is the move in the right direction albeit a belated one and with a limited scope," the Cuban president said, noting that the trade and economic blockade and other measures are still in place.
On Tuesday, a high-ranking US official said at a briefing in Washington that the US President Joe Biden administration will remove Cuba from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.
The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 in response to the nationalization of US property on the island, after which it announced a trade and economic embargo. In December 2014, then-President Barack Obama acknowledged that Washington’s previous policy towards Havana was not working and announced a move toward normalizing bilateral relations and easing sanctions. In 2015, the Obama administration announced the removal of Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The rapprochement between the two countries stalled after Republican Donald Trump took office in January 2017. He tightened travel rules for Americans to the republic and imposed a ban on doing business with organizations controlled by the Cuban military. The Trump administration also reinstated Cuba on the list of states sponsoring terrorism. The Biden administration then said it will review the policy toward Cuba.