UNITED NATIONS, June 23. /TASS/. The tightening of US sanctions against Cuba has nothing to do with supporting the Cuban people and only exacerbates the humanitarian consequences of the economic pressure on the country, Cuba’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ernesto Soberon Guzman said, commenting on the United States’ new sanctions.

"No government, no rational person, and certainly not the people of Cuba, who suffer the humanitarian impact of the U.S. economic war, can believe that the intensification of the blockade, the energy siege, and the rest of the most recent sanctions are aimed at supporting the Cuban people," he told TASS. "Anyone who doubts this should ask the parents of the 12,000 children currently awaiting surgery in Cuba as a result of the U.S. government's genocidal policy."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier that the Washington administration had added five Cuban companies to its sanctions list.