US President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against Cuba on Monday, saying \u200che expected to have the “honour” of “taking Cuba in some form” and that “I can do anything I want” with the neighbouring country.<\/p>\n
The threatening statements come even as Cuba and the United States have opened\u00a0talks\u00a0aimed at improving their largely adverse relations, which have reached one of their most contentious moments in the \u200b67 years since Fidel Castro overthrew what had been a close US ally.<\/p>\n
The White House has yet to detail the legal basis for any possible intervention in Cuba.<\/p>\n
“I do believe I’ll be … having the honour \u200bof taking Cuba. That’s a big honour. Taking Cuba in some form,” Trump told reporters as \u2060the island faces an unprecedented economic crisis, exacerbated by an oil blockade the US imposed after capturing former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0Trump upset as key allies shun call for Hormuz warship escorts<\/p>\n
“I \u200bmean, whether I free it, take it. Think I can do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth,” \u200bTrump told reporters at a signing event in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n
After Trump spoke, the New York Times\u00a0reported\u00a0that removing Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel from office is a key US objective in the bilateral talks. Citing four people familiar with the talks, the Times said the Americans have signalled to Cuban negotiators \u200bthat Diaz-Canel must go, but are allegedly “leaving” the next steps up to the Cubans.<\/p>\n
Cuba has traditionally rejected any interference in its internal \u200baffairs and has considered any proposals on that front a deal-breaker for any agreement.<\/p>\n
Diaz-Canel, 65, who succeeded the late Fidel Castro and his brother Ra\u00fal \u200cCastro as \u2060president in 2018, said on Friday he expected talks with the United States to take place “under the principles of equality and respect for the political systems of both countries, sovereignty and self-determination.”<\/p>\n
But Trump, after removing Maduro from power and joining Israel in attacking Iran, has openly mused that Cuba would be “next.” He stepped up pressure by halting all Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatening to slap \u200btariffs on any country that \u200bsells oil to Cuba.<\/p>\n
Read more:\u00a0Trump slams allies over rejection of Hormuz request, as Iran and Israel trade airstrikes<\/p>\n
As a \u2060result, Cuba says it has not received an oil shipment in three months, and the country has imposed severe energy rationing, resulting in extended power outages. Much of its economy has ground to a \u200bhalt. On Monday, Cuba’s electric grid\u00a0collapsed, leaving the country of 10 million people without power.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, \u200bTrump told reporters \u2060aboard Air Force One, “We’re talking to Cuba, but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba.”<\/p>\n
While more than a dozen US presidents dating back decades have opposed Cuba’s Communist government and criticised its human rights record, Washington has honoured its pledge not to invade Cuba or support an \u2060invasion as \u200bpart of the agreement with the Soviet Union to resolve the Cuban missile \u200bcrisis of 1962.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against Cuba on Monday, saying \u200che expected to have the “honour” of “taking Cuba in some form” and that “I can do anything I want” with the neighbouring country. The threatening statements come even as Cuba and the United States have opened\u00a0talks\u00a0aimed at improving their largely adverse relations, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378\/revisions\/2381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}