U.S. Names Cuba as “State Sponsor of Terrorism”

The US administration has designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism. The decision was announced by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. With this decision, the Trump administration has reversed the decision taken during Obama-era to remove the label from the country.

Key Points

• As per the Trump administration, Cuba has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism because the country has been continuously providing support to international terrorism acts and have granted safe harbor to terrorists.
• The administration also said that Cuba has not fulfilled the commitments made by it when it was taken off from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in the year 2015.
• A top Cuban official has said that the designation of the country is hypocritical.
• This decision will also give a setback to the efforts of Joe Biden to improve US-Cuba relations. Joe Biden is set to become the president of the US on January 20.
• After getting designated, Cuba has joined three other countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism -North Korea, Iran, and Syria.
• Sudan was also on the list but was recently removed due to its agreement to improve ties with Israel.
• The Trump administration has however not provided any proof of sponsored terror attacks by Cuba.

This decision of including Cuba in the list of state sponsors of terrorism has been criticized by diplomats.