Iran seeks closer Cuba ties:

Lat/Am

Paragliders are seen from the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Lima’s upscale neighbourhood of Miraflores on Aug 20. (AFP)

Iran wants to forge a “new path” in its relations with Cuba by tightening ties, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday at the start of a Latin American tour.

“It’s a very opportune moment to extend our relations,” he told journalists at the start of a meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

“We have always been on the side of the great Cuban people in the face of the atrocities and unjust sanctions they have faced, and vice versa,” he said, in an apparent reference to Cuba’s long history of enmity with the United States.

Cuba re-established diplomatic ties with the United States last year, but their historic rapprochement has not yet brought an end to the US embargo imposed on the communist island since 1962. (AFP)