Cuba-US Ties Rebuild Depends on Washington

Local Editor

Cuba would agree to restore diplomatic relations with the United States in time for the April Summit of the Americas if Washington quickly and convincingly removed the Caribbean country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Diplomatic ties were severed in 1961, and negotiators for the two longtime adversaries would meet in Washington, following up on the first round of talks held in Havana last month.

If the sides moved fast enough, they could reopen embassies in each other's capitals in time for the April 10-11 summit in Panama, where US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro could meet for the first time to restore ties and exchange prisoners.

A senior Cuban official put the onus on Washington to first strike Cuba from the terrorism list, which can apply sanctions to banks doing business with the designated countries.

"It depends on what the United States does. It does not depend on Cuba," Gustavo Machin, deputy director of US affairs for the Cuban foreign ministry declared. "It depends on whether we are really taken off the list of terrorist countries."

In Washington, a senior US State Department official stated that re-establishing diplomatic relations should not be tied to Cuba's place on the terrorist list. The official suggested that if Cuba insisted on linking them, it could delay restoring ties.
Moreover, a State Department review about whether to remove Cuba from the list would be completed "very soon," in weeks at most as mentioned by a state official.
He said on condition of anonymity "But we don't think that should be linked to the restoration of diplomatic relations".

Obama would need to inform Congress of any decision to remove Cuba from the list, a notification that required 45 days to become official, which was not enough time before the summit.

Thus, the American side had mentioned Obama's notification alone should be sufficient because Congress could not overturn the president under current law.
"I cannot say today, right now, if the act of making the announcement would be a sufficient guarantee," Machin said.

Furthermore, the United States insisted that as part of any accord, its diplomats had freedom to travel around Cuba and meet with a variety of Cubans, including dissidents.

"Both of us have to come to the table in the spirit of getting to an agreement on these things, and not putting so many obstacles in the way that are not linked directly to how we function as diplomats in each other's countries," the official said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team