SHYMKENT /Kazakhstan/, March 27. /TASS/. The United States has further intensified its policy of economic blockade on Cuba, the Latin American country’s Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga said at an extended meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council (EIC) currently running in Shymkent.

"In its ambition to dominate and establish hegemony of our country, the US government intensified to extremity its policy of illegal and unjustified economic, trade and financial blockade," he said, referring to the US executive order on January 29 imposing tariffs on countries selling oil and petroleum products to Cuba. "The humanitarian consequences for our population are severe and deep," the senior Cuban official added.

He called Washington’s actions a fragrant violation of international law as he said that the United States had created a very tough economic situation on the island, especially as regards fuel access. "However, Cuba has not abandoned and will not abandon its efforts to defend at any cost its independence and absolute sovereignty," he emphasized.