US abstains from UN vote on Cuba embargo
Thick smoke and flames rise from amid the tents after fires were started in the makeshift migrant camp known as ‘the jungle’ near Calais, northern France, on Wednesday. Firefighters have doused several dozen fires set by migrants as they left the makeshift camp where they have been. WASHINGTON (AP): THE UNITED States on Wednesday will abstain for the first time from a United Nations resolution criticising America’s economic embargo against Cuba, according to diplomats familiar with the matter. Such a step would effectively pit the Obama administration and Cuba with the world body against the Republican-led Congress, which supports the 55-year-old embargo despite the US resumption of full diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The diplomats said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, will explain the decision shortly before the UN General Assembly vote. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the vote publicly.
A US official said Power would point to elements of this year’s resolution that the US does not back, despite its overall support for lifting the embargo, as the reason why the US was abstaining instead of voting for the resolution outright.
The US has always opposed the annual resolution condemning the embargo. But an abstention would be in keeping with the administration’s belief that the embargo should be lifted as part of normalising diplomatic relations with Cuba.
General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding and unenforceable. But the 24year-old exercise in which the UN overwhelmingly votes to condemn the embargo has given Cuba a global stage to demonstrate America’s isolation on its Cuba policy.
SPIRIT OF ENGAGEMENT
The administration had considered abstaining from the vote last year, but concluded it could not do so because the resolution did not reflect what it considered to be the spirit of engagement between Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro.
The 2015 vote ended up 191-2 to condemn the commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba; it was the highest number of votes ever for the measure. Only Israel joined the United States in opposing the resolution.
Obama and Castro announced on December 17, 2014, that they were restoring diplomatic ties, which were broken in 1961 after Fidel Castro took power and installed a communist government.
On July 20 last year, diplomatic relations were restored and embassies of the two countries were reopened, but serious issues remain, especially the US call for human rights on the Caribbean island and claims for expropriated property.