The State Department insisted on Wednesday that the Obama administration’s decision abstain from a United Nations vote condemning the U.S. embargo against Cuba does not mean officials are trying to flout the law setting up the embargo.
President Obama’s representative at the U.N. took the unprecedented step Wednesday by abstaining from the U.N.’s annual vote criticizing the embargo. It was the first time in more than 20 years that the U.S. hasn’t voted against the U.N. resolution.
Supporters of the embargo have said for years now that Obama has been trying to whittle the embargo away through executive actions, including this month’s decision to make it easier for Americans to buy tobacco and alcohol products in Cuba. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the U.S. move “shameful” and one that tries to “dismiss the will of the American people.”
But at the State Department, spokesman John Kirby rejected the idea that Obama is ignoring federal law, or weakening it by refusing to support the U.S. embargo at the U.N.
“We understand what the law is, and the embargo is law,” he said. “And so we have obligation to obey it, and we do. That doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t examine policies that we believe are in the best interest of the United States.”
“We are obviously fully cognizant of the fact that the embargo is law, and the administration doesn’t hold itself above the law,” he said. “Any idea or suggestion that we’re somehow trying to flout law here is inaccurate.”
He also stressed that the U.S. representative at the U.N., Samantha Power, explained that the U.S. abstained from the vote in part because it didn’t agree with all of the reasons listed in the resolution for taking down the U.S. embargo.
But Power also made it clear the Obama administration is looking to “engage” with Cuba.
“The United States and Cuba must continue to find ways to engage, even as our differences persist,” she said. “Today, we will take another small step to be able to do that.”
