The Obama administration announced Tuesday it will remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a major step in normalizing relations between the two countries. The announcement comes just days after a meeting between President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro at a summit in Panama.
A statement from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that "the Government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding 6-month period," and that Cuba's government has "provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future."
President Obama previously ordered a review of Cuba's place on the terrorism list, after he and Castro announced last December that they were ready to begin normalizing diplomatic relations. Last week, the U.S. State Department recommended that Cuba be removed from the list.
Cuba has been on the list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1982 because of "efforts to promote armed revolution by organizations that used terrorism." Cuba has always objected to their place on the list.
The Associated Press reports that Earnest "said that taking Cuba off the terror list does not change the fact that the U.S. has difference with the island nation's government," but that "concerns over a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions fall outside the criteria that is relevant to whether to rescind Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism."
Removing Cuba from the list is only one part of a larger push to normalize ties between the two nations. As we've previously reported, "the U.S. will ease travel and remittance policies; expand commercial sales and exports; and ease imports, including of tobacco products and alcohol. The U.S. will expand Cubans' access to the Internet and telecommunications."
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