Miguel Díaz-Canel’s meeting with the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on February 4 in Havana has not gone unnoticed in Washington. An article published by The Wall Street Journal He sees in this meeting a sign of Havana’s little respect for the US “approach” policy and of its affinity, in the diplomatic sphere, for totalitarian regimes such as Tehran’s.
One of the high points in the negotiation between Cuba and the US has been the inclusion of the Island in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism prepared by Washington. Despite the fact that the Cuban government has implemented an international campaign to be removed from this group, it is a fundamental ally of the dictatorships of Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua, affirms the text, signed by the journalist Mary Anastasia O’Grady.
The context of the visit is also eloquent. Abdollahian arrived in Cuba as the US defense focused on the situation with China’s “spy balloons” flying over the region. In addition to this “distraction”, the reception occurred while the last cries of “woman, life, freedom” were being heard in the Persian country, drowned out by police repression.
However, what Díaz-Canel assessed as an “excellent moment to expand bilateral ties” raised an alarm in the White House. Three days after the visit, a call was leaked from President Joe Biden to the highly influential Cuban-American Senator from New Jersey Bob Menéndez, who has always held a hard line against the Havana regime. “Bob, I have something to tell you about Cuba. It’s serious,” Biden said, according to the newspaper.
However, reasons the ‘Wall Street Journal’, it is unlikely that Biden’s “urgency” will change his negotiation strategy
However, he reasons Wall Street Journal, Biden’s “urgency” is unlikely to change his negotiating strategy with Havana. Menéndez disagrees with the current position of the United States regarding the “approach” and the conversation will surely address his reluctance regarding the relief of pressure on the Island that the Democratic Administration has been preparing for months.
That is not why the sight of Abdollahian, on a tour that included Managua and Caracas, ceases to be of interest. The foreign minister valued relations with Havana as “of great importance” and defined the country as a “brother and strategic ally.” Iran’s diplomatic network includes other “anti-American” countries, the newspaper notes, such as Russia, China, Bolivia, North Korea and Syria.
In the opinion of Wall Street Journal, Receiving Abdollahian shows that Havana believes it has the “advantage” in the negotiations with the Biden Administration. Hence, he feels empowered not only to put pressure on the United States to get Cuba excluded from the countries that sponsor terrorism, an essential step to “reinvent itself as a country” and whitewash its image, but also believes that he can sustain alliances with Tehran enjoying impunity.
The article lists the facts that show that, despite the Democratic Party’s speech on Cuba, the Island has not shown the slightest fidelity to the supposed “commitments” made with Washington in the field of human rights and freedoms. In addition, he points out, “there has been no public record that Havana has expressed those commitments.”
From the massive protests of 9/11, repressed by the government, to the exodus of more than 300,000 Cubans in 2022, Havana has systematically violated the “tacit” agreements with US negotiators
From the massive protests of 9/11, repressed by the government, to the exodus of more than 300,000 Cubans in 2022, Havana has systematically violated “tacit” agreements with US negotiators. However, Biden “seems not to care,” laments the newspaper.
Contact between Iran and Cuba will lead to more political destabilization in the region, he assures, such as the one that occurred in Peru in December 2022, with a view to “infiltrating and destroying” the democracies of Latin America.
About this theme, The Wall Street Journal He quotes analyst Dardo López-Dolz, former Peruvian Minister of the Interior, who in 2015 denounced the “dangerous convergence” between Iranian cells and the Lebanese organization Hezbollah that was taking place in the political environment of Peru, along with other groups that included Shining Path, to which ex-president Pedro Castillo was linked.
The political tension in Iran, after the protests over the death of the young Mahsa Amini while she was in police custody on September 17, left nearly 500 dead and 20,000 arrested, of whom several hundred have been sentenced to prison terms. prison and 17 to the gallows.
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