The United States officially removed Cuba from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism on Friday, setting the two nations up for a full renewal of diplomatic ties.
President Barack Obama originally announced in April that he was recommending that Cuba be removed from the terror blacklist after a State Department review. Friday marked the expiration of a 45-day period when Congress could have blocked the move.
“The rescission of Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism reflects our assessment that Cuba meets the statutory criteria,” the State Department said in a statement Friday.
The statement noted that the U.S. “has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba’s policies and actions” but said these fall outside the criteria related to rescinding a state sponsor of terror designation.
Cuba was originally placed on the terror list in 1982 when the U.S. government accused the Fidel Castro regime of sponsoring communist groups in Latin American and Africa. But independent analysts have for years cast doubt on the country’s current terror ties, and the State Department said its association with certain groups had “become more distant.”
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