KINGSTON, Jamaica — President Barack Obama indicated Thursday he will announce Cuba’s removal from the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism this week, a move that should lead to a full restoration of diplomatic ties.
Speaking at a gathering of Caribbean leaders in Jamaica, Obama said the State Department had finished reviewing the issue. There is little doubt it recommends dropping Cuba, and the only question is when the announcement will be made.
Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement Thursday afternoon welcoming what he said was the State Department’s recommendation to remove Cuba from the terrorism roll.
Obama said he had received the recommendation and, while “I won’t make a formal announcement today … I do think we’re going to be in a position to move forward on opening embassies.”
A positive announcement on the terror-list decision would be welcomed at the two-day Summit of the Americas, which Obama will attend Friday and Saturday in Panama with up to 35 other leaders from across the Western Hemisphere.
The summit is held every three years, and this will be Cuban President Raul Castro’s first time in attendance. It will be Obama’s third time, after meetings in 2009 and 2012 that were overshadowed by U.S. insistence that Cuba be excluded.
Administration aides have hinted that Obama and Castro will meet for more than a handshake at the summit, but they have not specified the nature of the encounter.
Once Obama approves the recommendation to delist Cuba, Congress will have 45 days to consider the proposal. Lawmakers have no power to alter such a recommendation except through new legislation, a move that is seen as unlikely.
The administration has made the case to Cuba that Obama’s decision — even before the end of the 45 days — should be enough to move forward on reopening embassies.
Leaders of 14 Caribbean countries meeting in Jamaica with Obama welcomed the broader move toward normalization, which Simpson-Miller called “a bold and courageous move … for the good of all of our people.” Obama, she said, is “on the right side of history.”
