Obama approves taking Cuba off terror list

Yahoo – AFP, Andrew Beatty, 14 April 2015

President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Cuba's President Raul Castro

 during a meeting on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas on April 11, 

2015 in Panama City (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has agreed to take Cuba off a list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House said Tuesday, a key step toward normalizing ties after decades of hostility.

Obama notified Congress of his "intent to rescind" Cuba's inclusion on the list, which had been a major barrier to establishing embassies in Washington and Havana.

US lawmakers have 45 days in which they can oppose the move.

"The government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period," Obama wrote in the notification.

A Cuban and an American flag flutter

 on the balcony of a hotel in Havana, on

April 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

The move comes three days after Obama held an hour-long meeting with Raul Castro, the first face-to-face talks between a Cuban and US president in a half-century.

If the redesignation is successful, Cuba would again have access to the US banking system, allowing an embassy to be opened and paving the way for further trade between the Cold War foes.

Republicans have expressed criticism of Obama's detente with the nominally communist island.

Senator Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, who are considered frontrunners to win the party's presidential nomination, have deep support in Florida's powerful Cuban exile community.

If Congress passes a joint resolution objecting to the move, Obama could then issue a presidential veto.

Obama's ally, Senator Dick Durbin, was quick to welcome the decision.

"While no fan of the Castro regime, I continue to believe that opening up the island to American ideas, vibrancy, and trade is the most effective way to see a more open and tolerant Cuba," he said.

Cuba was first put on the list, which also includes Syria, Sudan and Iran, in 1982 for harboring ETA Basque separatist militants and Colombian FARC rebels.

The White House said that government departments, including intelligence agencies, concluded that Cuba should be taken off the list.

Screen grab from a video released by the Panamanian presidential office 

showing US President Barack Obama (R) and Cuba's Raul Castro shaking hands

during the VII America Summit, in Panama City, on April 10, 2015 (AFP Photo)

"Circumstances have changed since 1982," said Secretary of State John Kerry in a statement."Our hemisphere, and the world, look very different today than they did 33 years ago."

The United States and Cuba broke relations in 1961, the year Obama was born.

Last December Obama announced that after 18 months of secret negotiations, Havana and Washington would seek to normalize relations.

During his meeting with Castro, Obama declared that after 50 years of US policies that had not worked "it was time for us to try something new."

‎"We are now in a position to move on a path toward the future," he said, adding that the immediate task was to reopen embassies.

Cuba wants the quick lifting of a US embargo which forbids most trade and American tourism to the island.

US-Cuban tensions have vexed Washington's relations with Latin America for decades.

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