President Barack Obama said his plan to normalise relations with Cuba gives the US a chance to influence events at an important moment of change for the communist nation, and he brushed off critics who accuse him of kowtowing to dictators.
Obama said a half-century of trying to push out the Castro Government through isolation hasn’t worked. He said his administration is taking a look at whether to remove Cuba from the US list of State sponsors of terror, acknowledging that Havana’s inclusion makes it difficult for the US to pursue closer ties.
“If we engage, we have the opportunity to influence the course of events at a time when there’s going to be some generational change in that country,” Obama told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview set to air today. “And I think we should seize it and I intend to do so.”
Obama’s move to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba elicited cheers from longtime opponents of the strict US position toward Cuba.