Cuba appeals to US to normalise relations

Accra, Oct. 2, GNA - Dr. Miguel Perez Cruz, Cuban Ambassador in Ghana on Tuesday called on UN Member States to support Cuba's move to end the embargo imposed on his country by the United States. At a press conference in Accra, Mr Cruz said Cuba would submit to the consideration of the United Nations General (UN) Assembly a draft resolution entitled "necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba" on October 30, and asked for support from members by voting in favour of the resolution.

According to him, 183 member states voted in favour of the resolution last year, which constituted an almost unanimous proof of the International Community's rejection of the "genocidal policy of the US government against Cuba".

"The blockade imposed by the US government against Cuba has lasted for almost five decades now and it's implications have been more severe under the Bush administration, hence the need for all to support its lifting," he said.

The extraterritorial nature of the blockade, which has been institutionalised by America, aside from violating the International Law and the sovereignty of third world States, has brought about serious additional damages to the Cuban economy in its economic relations with those countries, the Ambassador said. He said that in 2006 alone, damages to Cuba's foreign trade exceeded over one million dollars. The greatest of the damages, he said, were registered due to the impossibility of having access to the US market. "We want normal relations with the US, for we are too close for such hostilities to be continuing for so long," Dr Cruz said.