Cuba warns of rising US military threat as talks stall

Havana: As Cuba–US tensions escalate, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal said the risk of US military aggression against the island is growing as negotiations between the two countries stagnate.

Speaking at a legislative hearing at the National Capitol to denounce U.S. sanctions on Cuban oil imports, Vidal accused Washington of fabricating pretexts to portray Cuba as a threat to US national security to justify aggression.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has effectively imposed a blockade on Cuba by threatening sanctions on countries supplying it with fuel, triggering power outages and worsening the country’s economic crisis.

However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he remains confident that dialogue between the two nations, which began around March, will yield a positive outcome.

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Rooted in the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuba-America goes beyond six decade. Tensions between the two countries remain elevated due to the ongoing US embargo, ideological differences, and recent escalations involving US naval deployments in the Caribbean, international terrorism allegations, and heightened diplomatic friction over human rights and political asylum.

Earlier this month, US Senator Lindsey Graham provoked the relations between the two countries by claiming that Cuba would be free from communism. Cuba has been following communism and is considered tilted towards Russia due to its ideaological similarity between the two countries, which provokes the USA.

In a post on X, Graham wrote, "I believe the liberation of the wonderful people of Cuba from the clutches of communism is close at hand. Cuba Libre."

Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel expressed a strong concern on the false narratives and provocations by the US Senators.

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He wrote on X, "That Cuba represents a threat to the U.S. can only exist in the sick minds of some officials in the current U.S. administration who have hijacked policy toward our island, who shamelessly lie to the people of that nation and the world to justify a new irrational war with a high potential cost in human lives for both countries."

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