一 | Havana, Oct 20 (UNI) Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called on the US government to lift its decades-long trade embargo, or blockade, against the country.
"The US blockade has caused Cuba losses valued at 3.806 billion US dollars between August 2021 and February 2022," Rodriguez told a press conference in the country's capital Havana on Wednesday.
The call comes ahead of the Cuban government's annual submission to the UN General Assembly of a draft resolution calling for an end to the embargo. The General Assembly is scheduled to discuss and vote on the draft resolution in early November.
US trade sanctions, Rodriguez said, severely limit Cuba's access to food, medicine, technology and inputs on the international market.
"The world would be a better place without the US blockade against Cuba," he added.
First imposed in 1962, the embargo was broadened by former US President Donald Trump, who put in place 243 more sanctions, including banning all flights from the United States to Cuban destinations except for Havana, and capping remittances Cuban Americans can send to their families back home.
The current US administration allowed airlines to resume flights to other Cuban cities and lifted the cap on remittances, but the web of sanctions against Cuba remains largely in place.
For 29 times in a row, the UN General Assembly has voted in favor of the resolution urging the United States to end its embargo against Cuba.
UNI/XINHUA PRT。 Canberra, Oct 18 (UNI) Australia has reversed a decision made four years ago to recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Canberra's decision in 2018 had undermined peace and put Australia out of step with other nations, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. She stressed that Australia remained a "steadfast friend" to Israel. Its embassy will stay in Tel Aviv, the BBC reported.
At the time, Scott Morrison had said Australia would recognise West Jerusalem immediately but not move its embassy from Tel Aviv until a peace settlement was achieved. Morrison's government lost power in an election in May this year.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the former government's decision a "cynical play" to win over Jewish voters ahead of an election in Australia.
"I regret that Mr Morrison's decision to play politics resulted in Australia's shifting position, and the distress these shifts have caused to many people in the Australian community who care deeply about this issue," she said.
She reaffirmed the country's "previous and longstanding" position that the status of Jerusalem should be resolved as part of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people. "We will not support an approach that undermines this prospect," she said.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the most contested issues between Israel and the Palestinians.
Former US President Donald Trump drew international criticism in 2017 when he reversed decades of American foreign policy by recognising the ancient city as Israel's capital. The US embassy was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018.
Months later, then Australian Prime Minister Morrison announced his government would follow suit.
Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided" capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - as the capital of a future state, the BBC said.
The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and according to the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, the final status of Jerusalem is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks, the BBC added.
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