HAVANA, June 5 — Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Thursday that new sanctions imposed by Washington, along with recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, would further tighten the blockade against Cuba and deepen tensions between the two countries.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday added Diaz-Canel, several other individuals and five entities, including Cuba’s Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, to its Specially Designated Nationals list.
Earlier, Trump suggested that the United States could turn its attention to Cuba once the war with Iran winds down.
In a post on X, Diaz-Canel said the U.S. moves are “aimed at reinforcing the blockade measures and the scenario of conflict between Cuba and the United States.”
He added that the “coercive measures” applied in recent weeks against Cuba were designed to harm the Cuban people, and the “aggressiveness and perversity” of the U.S. government will clash with Cuba’s determination to “face the worst scenarios and resist the imperial offensive.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also said on Thursday that the inclusion of Diaz-Canel and other Cuban entities and individuals on the sanction list “is the latest demonstration of the U.S. interventionist plan to portray Cuba as a threat to the national security of the United States.”
Rodriguez wrote on X that U.S. actions aimed at “building a scenario of conflict” between the two nations are “doomed to failure.” (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
