US appears close to announcing Cuba's removal from terrorism sponsor list

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/07/us-cuba-removal-terrorism-sponsor-list

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The US and Cuba are on the verge of historic breakthrough in their longer-than-expected path to normalising relations, paving the way for a possible announcement of diplomatic ties when presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro meet this weekend.

Officials in Washington are preparing to take Cuba off a list of state sponsors of terrorism which had been holding up diplomatic progress, although they caution several obstacles remain before embassies can be opened.

Both countries had originally hoped to agree to a mutual reopening of embassies before the two leaders are expected to meet at the Summit of the Americas in Panama on Friday.

Related: Fidel Castro appears in public for first time in a year to greet Venezuelans

Yet Cuban diplomats have been frustrated at the pace of a parallel review of the country’s inclusion on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

While it remains on the list, other promised elements of the historic rapprochement – such as removing financial sanctions and restoring diplomatic relations – are frozen. Cuba insists it cannot contemplate a formal reopening of its Washington embassy without access to banking facilities.

But the White House on Tuesday held out hope this remaining obstacle could soon be removed when it predicted the State Department was close to announcing its recommendation on the issue.

“We would expect that the review, since it’s been ongoing for of period of months, is nearing its conclusion,” said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes in a call with reporters.

Separately, CNN quoted an unnamed US official who said the decision was almost certain to be positive since the State Department had decided Cuba’s inclusion on the list was a “relic”.

Although the White House refused to confirm this report, Rhodes said it would be able to act swiftly once it received the State Department recommendation, and Congress would only have 45 days to seek any override of the president.

“We have made good progress in working through a number of practical hurdles that had to be cleared, but we still have a little bit further to go,” he said.

“Certainly this will be a subject of discussion at the summit, but I think what you will see is very broad support from within the Americas for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, so we expect there will be continued momentum.”

In a separate interview released on Tuesday, Obama said “as soon as I get a recommendation I’ll be in a position to act on it”, but insisted the decision would be based solely on whether Cuba was no longer considered a state sponsor of terrorism.

“Our hope is to be in a position where we can open an embassy there – that we can start having more regular contacts and consultations around a whole host of issues, some of which we have interests in common,” the president told NPR.

Previous Summits of the Americas have been overshadowed by a US refusal to allow Cuba to attend, and the White House now acknowledges the policy was a mistake.

“We did not think it was constructive to try to continue to isolate Cuba from the broader community within the Americas,” said Rhodes. “Frankly, it only pointed to the broader failure of US policy, because every time we showed up at the summit of the Americas, the question was not improving governance or democratic values; the question was why Cuba wasn’t at the summit of the Americas.”

Cuban officials are also optimistic the remaining obstacles can be overcome as soon as the terror list issue is resolved.

“In our view, it’s not necessary to put it all in one package because if, for example, in a few weeks we receive some satisfactory notification in regards to the matter of Cuba’s removal from terrorist list, I think we will be ready to then begin talking about how to formalize the re-establishing of relations,” Josefina Vidal, the head of the United States division at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said in an interview published last month in Cubadebate.

But although an announcement on restoring diplomatic relations could be made in Panama, the US no longer believes there will be time to announce an embassy re-opening at the meeting.

“I would not anticipate that we would be formalising the opening embassies in advance of the summit. It’s obviously something that continues to be the subject of conversation with the Cuban government,” said Rhodes.

“I would anticipate it will come up [when Obama and Castro meet on the sidelines of the conference],” he added. “When you have two governments like this that haven’t really spoken in over 50 years, you have a lot of issues to work through.”