US Embargo On Cuba Recieves Knock

By Adeyemi Adekunle

United Nations General Assembly at a sitting.

The United States embargo on Cuba, which Havana has demanded be lifted amid an economic crisis on the Caribbean island has recieves knock by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

Large numbers of 185 countries on Thursday voted to support a non-binding resolution condemning the embargo, while the US and Israel voted against and Brazil and Ukraine abstained.

The Resolution condemning the embargo on Cuba passes 185-2, which marked 30th time the UN has rebuked the decades-old US policy.

“The United States not in support of this resolution, but our thought and mindset remain with the people of Cuba and ways to continually provide meaningful support to them is what we will seek,”
John Kelley,US Political Coordinator, said at the UNGA on Thursday.

“If the United States government was really interested in the welfare, human rights and self-determination of Cubans, it could lift the blockade,” countered Yuri Gala, Cuba’s deputy representative at the UN.

In 1960, the US had imposed the embargo, following a revolution led by Fidel Castro in which US citizens properties and corporations were nationalized.

A measure which after two years– prohibits trade between the two countries, got strengthened

In 2016, Barack Obama as US President made a considerable moves to ease tension with Cuban government and to restore US-Cuba relations on his visit to Havana .

Same year, the American government also withdrawn for the first time during a UN vote condemning the embargo.

However, Donald Trump, former US President rejected such efforts and took a more difficult approach with grave sanctions, rolling back steps towards normalcy.