US President Donald Trump is contemplating an economic agreement with Cuba that might include a partial lifting of sanctions against Havana, USA Today has reported, citing two sources privy to the plans.
Although details about the deal and its timing are not known but there are speculations that it may include lifting a number of sanctions and a softening of restrictions preventing US nationals from visiting the Caribbean island, the report said on Sunday.
The White House is also reportedly mulling offering an “exit” to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, allowing the Castro’s to remain on the island, as well as deals on ports, energy, and tourism, the report said. However, it is unclear what Havana would give Washington in exchange for the agreement, it added.
On Saturday, Trump said at the Shield of the Americas Summit that “Cuba’s at the end of the line”.
Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order, authorising the United States to impose tariffs on imports from countries that supply oil to Cuba and declared a state of emergency, citing a threat to US national security posed by Cuba.
The order states that the Government of Cuba has taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States. The regime aligns itself with , and provides support for , numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States, including the Government of the Russian Federation (Russia), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Government of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
US also blamed Cuba for hosting hosts dangerous adversaries of the United States, inviting them to base sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities in Cuba that directly threaten the national security of the United States.
It stated that Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which tries to steal sensitive national security information of the United States. Cuba continues to build deep intelligence and defense cooperation with the PRC. Cuba welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, creating a safe environment for these malign groups so that these transnational terrorist groups can build economic, cultural, and security ties throughout the region and attempt to destabilize the Western Hemisphere, including the United States.
