As part of the move, Washington
plans to open an embassy in Havana.
It comes as part of a deal that saw
three Cubans freed from a Florida jail and the release of American prisoner
Alan Gross by Cuba.
US President Barack Obama
made the announcement on the policy shift in a TV address to the nation.
“It’s time for a new approach,” he
said, marking a dramatic development in a longstanding dispute that has
dominated headlines for years.
President Obama said
the “rigid“ and outdated policy of the past failed to have an impact on Cuba.
“Today we are making these changes
because it is the right thing to do. Today America chooses to cut loose the
shackles of the past, so as to reach for a better future, for the Cuban people,
for the American people, for our entire hemisphere, and for the world,” he
said.
Some areas involving trade and
transportation are now expected to be relaxed, but for now the decades-old
trade embargo remains. For this to be lifted,
congressional approval is needed.
Alistair Bell from Reuters wrote:
“Only Congress can overturn the law, and with Republicans due to take control
of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in January, the chance of
lawmakers scrapping all sanctions on Cuba soon is almost zero.”
There is vocal criticism of the move
in the US, and that has mostly come from Republican politicians.
The former Governor of Florida, Jeb
Bush, who is also seen as a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate,
said: “I don’t think we should be negotiating with a repressive regime to make
changes in our relationship.”
Republican Senator Marco Rubio,
a Cuban American, who will soon be the chairman of the key Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, says he will try to block the plan.
But a spokesman for President Obama
says the lifting of the embargo on Cuba could happen before he leaves office,
and a visit to Cuba is possible before then, once full diplomatic relations are
restored.
“If there is an opportunity for the
president to visit, I’m sure he wouldn’t turn it down,” said White House
spokesman Josh Earnest.
Source: EURONEWS. Photo shows Fidel Castro of Cuba
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