Governor to begin chemotherapy Mon.
WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday tagged Iran and Cuba as serial human rights abusers even as the Obama administration accelerates attempts to improve relations with both countries.
Days before the resumption of nuclear talks with Tehran and weeks before the expected reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana, the State Department castigated Iran, Cuba and many other nations as violators of basic freedoms in 2014 in its annual human rights reports.
Last week, the administration also criticized Iran for its “undiminished” support for terrorism in 2014. Cuba also was identified as a “state sponsor of terrorism” in 2014, although it was removed from that list this year.
“Engagement is not the same thing as endorsement,” said Tom Malinowski, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, whose office prepared the reports.
Administration officials have defended their outreach to Cuba as an effort to improve the human rights situation after decades of isolating the communist nation through an embargo and strict penalties. The U.S. and Cuba hope to reopen embassies in their respective capitals in mid-July.
“Our opening to Cuba ... was designed because we felt that the new policy is better suited to promoting human rights in Cuba than the old policy,” Malinowski said.
On Iran, officials have said the nuclear negotiations, set to resume this weekend in Vienna against a June 30 deadline for a deal, are not intended to address other issues the U.S. has with Iran’s behavior, including its support for terrorism and its record on human rights. But they said they have said that a nuclear deal could open the door to a broader rapprochement with Iran that might include those elements of concern.
Malinowski said Iran’s rights abuses would remain a concern no matter what happens in Vienna.
The reports accused Iran of “severely restricting” multiple civil liberties and taking few, if any, steps to punish abusers.
“Iran continued to severely restrict civil liberties, including the freedoms of assembly, speech, religion and press, and to execute citizens at the second highest rate in the world after legal proceedings that frequently didn’t respect Iran’s own constitutional guarantee to due process or international legal norms,” the State Department said.
On Cuba, the human rights reports said the Havana government continued to use threats and intimidation to suppress peaceful dissent in 2014. Cuban officials were accused of carrying out “most human rights abuses” at the direction of their superiors.
The reports also detail rights violations in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and other nations.
Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday he will check into the University of Maryland hospital Monday to undergo four days of chemotherapy.
At a State House news conference, Hogan also said his doctors have determined through bone marrow testing that he has Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, not Stage 4 as he had suggested earlier this week. “It makes my chances much, much better,” Hogan said.
Thursday’s news conference was the governor’s first public appearance since announcing Monday he has cancer. He said then that he’s been diagnosed with a “very advanced and very aggressive” cancer that has spread throughout his body, but that he expects to beat the disease. The first-term governor also said he plans to stay in office while undergoing treatment, but that Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford could see increased duties.