President Obama gave notice to Congress Tuesday that he intends to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The White House announcement came just days after Obama met with Cuban President Raul Castro, the first talks between the leaders of the two nations in more than 50 years.
“Today, the president submitted to Congress the statutorily-required report and certifications indicating the administration’s intent to rescind Cuba’s state sponsor of terrorism designation,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
“As the president has said, we will continue to have differences with the Cuban government, but our 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.”
The Castro regime demanded the removal of the terror designation as part of a normalization of ties announced by Obama in December. Obama would like to soon open embassies in Washington and Havana.
The lone other nations on the U.S. terror list are Iran, Syria and Sudan. Cuba has been labeled a state sponsor of terrorism since 1982.
Republicans will likely attempt to pass legislation blocking Obama’s move but would need to assemble a veto-proof majority to override Obama’s veto. The White House is confident that it has enough Democratic support to withstand such a push by Republicans.
