UN hears overwhelming support for Cuba

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Thursday calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba.

Some 187 United Nations member states voted in favor of the resolution, while Brazil and Israel joined the US in vetoing it. Colombia and Ukraine abstained. The same resolution has been adopted for 28 years in a row.

The vote was preceded by presentations and group debates, which began on Tuesday.

Palestine, which is chairing the Group of 77 developing nations this year, said it regretted that the US has strengthened the embargo.

Riyad Mansour, ambassador and permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, said that from April 2018 to March this year, the impact of the US embargo on Cuba's foreign trade amounted to more than $4 billion.

"Limited foreign investment and difficult access to development credits translate directly into economic hardship and humanitarian impacts for the people of Cuba. The country's socioeconomic reforms have also been hampered by the embargo."

Ambassador Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, on Wednesday said China, which voted in favor of the draft resolution submitted by Cuba, allied itself with the statement by Palestine.

The embargo, which dates to 1960, was imposed after Fidel Castro and his fellow revolutionaries seized power on the island in 1959. Tensions with the US only eased more than a half-century later when the administration of US president Barack Obama established diplomatic relations with Cuba. Under the former president, several aspects of the embargo were modified, such as the lifting of some travel restrictions.

As the resolution states, these policies "contrast" with measures implemented by US President Donald Trump in 2017, UN News said.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla reported that in recent months, Washington has begun to "escalate aggression", including by preventing international fuel shipments to the island, scaling down consular services, and attacking national programs that support other developing countries.

"The blockade has caused incalculable humanitarian damages. It is a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of human rights," he said.

xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 11/09/2019 page8)