The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution on
Tuesday calling on the USs to end its decades-long trade embargo
against Cuba.
With a vote of 184 in favor, four against and one abstention,
the 192-member assembly repeated a call on the US to end its
economic and commercial embargo against Cuba. The US, Marshall
Islands and Palau cast the negative vote while Micronesia
abstained.
It was the 16th consecutive year since 1992 for the General
Assembly to approve a resolution urging the US to lift its embargo
against Cuba. The UN body voted 183-4 to approve a similar
resolution last year.
The resolution, entitled "Necessity of ending the economic,
commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of
America against Cuba," reiterated its call on all states to refrain
from promulgating and applying laws and measures such as those in
the US embargo.
It urged "states that have and continue to apply such laws and
measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them
as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime."
"The blockade had never been enforced with such viciousness as
over the last year," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told
the assembly before the Tuesday vote.
He described the US ignorance of the previous 15 resolutions
passed by the assembly as "arrogance and political blindness."
The "brutal economic war" imposed on Cuba has not only affected
Cubans, but also hurt the interests of many other countries, he
said, adding that the embargo has caused economic damage to Cuba of
over US$89 billion in more than 40 years.
Delivering a speech at the State Department last week, US
President George W. Bush vowed to keep the US economic embargo on
the neighboring island country.
"As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political
and economic life of the Cuban people, the US will keep the embargo
in place," Bush said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2007)
