State Secretary Mike Pompeo
Mike PompeoPompeo calls for the release of a Chinese journalist arrested for coronavirus coverage. Trump approves sale of bomb to Saudis. is considering whether to place Cuba on the United States’ list of sponsors of terrorism, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Two US officials who spoke to the Times said that members of the State Department had drafted a proposal to designate Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism, which Pompeo would have to sign with the president-elect just three weeks away. Joe Biden
Joe BidenGeorgia’s signature audit found no fraud in the presidential election. Pence refused to sign the plan to revoke the election, say lawyers for the New Lincoln Project showing Trump’s border wall built from tombstones of COVID-19 victims. MOREinauguration of.
The change – which the Times noted would serve as a “thank you” to Cuban Americans and other anti-Communist Latinos in Florida who helped President Trump
Donald Trump Georgia’s signature audit found no fraud in the presidential election. Pompeo calls for the release of a Chinese journalist arrested because of coronavirus coverage Pence refused to sign a plan to overturn the election, lawyers say MORE and other Republicans guarantee victories in the state – they can also complicate the Biden administration’s plans to return to normalizing relations established under former President Obama.
Although Biden could quickly remove Cuba from the list when he took office, the Times said it could require a formal review process for months.
When contacted by The Hill, a State Department spokesman said the agency did not “discuss deliberations or potential deliberations” about terrorism designations.
The State Department defines a state sponsoring terrorism as a country that has “has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism. ”
States that receive this designation are subject to four main categories of sanctions: restrictions on foreign aid from the United States, export bans and defense sales, controls on exports of dual-use items and other financial restrictions.
There are currently only three countries on the terrorism list: Iran, North Korea and Syria.
The State Department removed Cuba from the list in 2015 under the Obama administration, normalizing relations between Washington and Havana for the first time since the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba.
In 2016, Obama became the first US president to visit the island nation since Calvin Coolidge.
Cuba was first included on the terrorism list under the Reagan government in 1982, after the country’s support for left-wing insurgency groups across Latin America.
However, US-Cuba relations have become increasingly strained under the Trump administration, with the State Department notifying Congress in May that Cuba was among the countries identified as “Not fully cooperating” with U.S. counterterrorism efforts in 2019, marking the first year that Cuba has been certified as not fully cooperating since 2015.
Throughout the 2020 election cycle, the Trump campaign has mobilized fears among Cubans and others in Florida that Biden would not face communism in Latin America, with Trump calling Obama’s deal with Cuba “terrible and wrong”.
Democrats on Tuesday condemned a possible appointment of sponsor of state terrorism for Cuba, with Rep. Gregory Meeks
Gregory Weldon Meeks150 House Democrats support Biden in an attempt to retake the nuclear deal with Iran For Biden, the answer to North Korea is now impossible to ignore. (DN.Y.), the newly elected chairman of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, telling the Times that the move would be “another feat of this president with less than 23 days to finish. ”
“He’s trying to handcuff the new administration,” added Meeks.