Trump State Dept designates Cuba a “state sponsor of terror”

The Trump State Department has just designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terror, less than 9 days before Trump leaves office:

FOX NEWS – The U.S. State Department announced Monday that it is designating Cuba a state sponsor of terror, accusing it of providing safe harbor to malicious actors and engaging in “malign behavior” in the region.

“The Trump Administration has been focused from the start on denying the Castro regime the resources it uses to oppress its people at home, and countering its malign interference in Venezuela and the rest of the Western Hemisphere,” Secertary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement.

“With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of U.S.”

Monday’s designation returns the Caribbean nation to a list that it was on between former President Reagan’s administration and former President Obama.

This news inflamed Obama hack Ben Rhodes, who called on Biden’s future State Department to reverse this as soon as possible:

At first I was kinda meh on the news, believing that Biden would just reverse it later this month. But according to CNBC, it’s not that simple:

Returning Cuba to the list is a further rollback of the detente that former President Barack Obama orchestrated between the old Cold War foes. Obama’s decision to formally remove Cuba from the terrorism list in 2015 was an important step toward restoring diplomatic ties that year.

The terrorism list decision followed months of legal review, with some administration experts questioning whether it was justified, the source said.

It would require further lengthy legal deliberations for President-elect Joe Biden to reverse the designation.

That’s probably why Rhodes said ‘as soon as possible’, because it’s going to take a while to reverse.

Either way, it’s the right decision. I just wish it’d come a lot earlier than 9 days before Trump is out.


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