July 1st, 2008
EU irks US over Cuba embargoes
Published on PressTV.ir
June 26, 2008
The US has been dealt another blow after it failed to convince its allies in the European Union not to lift sanctions against Cuba.
The United States had imposed an economic embargo on Cuba since 1962 and President George W. Bush’s administration had tightened sanctions four years ago. But he expressed his displeasure when last week the European Union decided to lift sanctions it had imposed in 2003 after a crackdown on dissidents.
Janette Habel, an analyst with France’s Institute of Higher Learning on Latin America, says the European Union’s decision to lift sanctions against Cuba was another failure for American diplomacy, which did everything possible through pressures on eastern European countries, like the Poles or the Czechs, to obtain a different result.
The EU officially lifted the sanctions on Monday, with the aim of “encouraging democracy” in Cuba following the handover of power in February, when Raul Castro took over the presidency from his brother Fidel.
The measure was largely symbolic, as the EU sanctions had already been suspended since 2005. It was championed by Spain, which normalized relations with Cuba last year.
Marifeli Perez-Stable, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank, said Washington’s uncompromising stance against Cuba was dented because its eastern European allies backed the EU’s decision.
She added, “In Europe or Latin America, no one agrees with US policy on Cuba, whether the governments are on the right or on the left.”
Spain’s Secretary of State for the EU, Diego Lopez Garrido, said the decision to lift the sanctions showed the European bloc’s “independence” from Washington.
Meanwhile, Cuba welcomed on Tuesday the European Union’s lifting of sanctions, saying “truth” and “reason” had defeated the punitive measures.
“We never surrendered in this confrontation, because we were convinced that reason would prevail,” Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said during an official visit in Angola.
FTP/RE