The United States is not ready to remove Cuba from its blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, said Thursday, March 23 the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken.
“
We do not plan to remove them from the list
,” said Antony Blinken, questioned about this during a hearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, dominated by the Republican opposition.
“
Clearly, no
,” he again replied to a Republican elected official to find out whether Cuba had taken measures to consider removing the country from this blacklist.
"
The bar is very high
."
Anti-government protests
Former US President Donald Trump had put an end to the policy of openness towards Cuba initiated by his predecessor Barack Obama, and put the country back on his blacklist in January 2021. Upon his arrival at the White House in 2021, President Joe Biden promised to review US policy toward Cuba, but his rhetoric hardened following anti-government protests on the island in July 2021.
In addition to the one on support for terrorism, Cuba appears in another list of countries that attack religious freedom.
Despite this, the two countries have resumed discussions on international crime and migration issues.
A high-level US delegation recently visited Cuba.
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Washington and Havana resumed discussions on immigration in 2022 against a backdrop of record emigration of Cubans, particularly to the United States.
The American Embassy in Havana resumed in early January the full issuance of visas for Cubans wishing to settle in the United States.
But a "
normalization
" of relations with the communist island is not yet on the agenda.