25 June, 2017
In an interview, Rhodes said he took solace that Trump, who put new limits on commercial transactions and us citizens' travel to the island nation, had not ended diplomatic relations.
President Donald Trump is clamping down on some commerce and travel between the United States and Cuba, but leaving intact many new avenues President Barack Obama opened.
"Deceiving the U.S. administration and appeasing militant outfits like Haqqani network, Taliban Quetta Shura and Al Qaeda operatives is a policy towed by ISI", the memorandum said. The U.S. could use further dismantling of the embargo as leverage for Cuba's progress in implementing economic reforms that the Cuban government has tentatively endorsed, settling property claims, releasing political prisoners, or returning fugitives.
"America has rejected the Cuban people's oppressors", Trump said in Miami's Little Havana, the cradle of Cuban-American resistance to Castro's government.
"Effective immediately, I am canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba". Finally, restricting travel and trade and limiting our ability to export American democracy and values will hinder efforts to improve human rights and religious liberties in Cuba. Nelson Avila, center, joins anti-President Donald Trump protesters, calling for open relations with Cuba on Friday, June 16, 2017, in Miami.
In a statement on state television it denounced the measures, but said Havana "reiterates its willingness to continue the respectful dialogue and cooperation".
The statement says that "It's clear the anti-Cuba discourse is still widely needed". Washington had severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, two years after communist rebels led by Fidel Castro toppled the right-wing government of Fulgencio Batista.
Embassies in Havana and Washington will remain open.
President Trump says this is to ensure that USA visitor money is not going towards the Cuban military. Remittances from people in America to Cubans won't be cut off.
Moscow maintains close ties with Havana, and in March signed a deal to ship oil to Cuba for the first time in over a decade.
And the United States government will police other trips to ensure travellers are pursuing a "full-time schedule of educational exchange activities".
The Obama administration created 12 categories of allowable travel to Cuba, including family visits, official government business, educational activities, and people-to-people cultural exchanges, among others.
Trump will not end an Obama-era policy that allows American visitors to bring back all the rum and cigars they can manage if they do make it down. "Why would you go back to a policy that has failed for 55 years?"
The new policy will ban most US business transactions with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group (GAESA), a sprawling conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy, but make some exceptions, including for air and sea travel, the officials said.
President Trump, on the other hand, has a different idea of what needs to happen with Shakur.
Former President Barack Obama's move to reinstate diplomatic relations December 17, 2014 remained in place with both embassies in Havana and Washington open.
As a result, the changes - though far-reaching - appear to be less sweeping than many U.S.pro-engagement advocates had feared. The embargo remains in place and unchanged by Trump's policy.
'They fought for everything and we just didn't fight hard enough, but now those days are over.
Also not expected are any changes to USA regulations governing what items Americans can bring back from Cuba, including the rum and cigars produced by state-run enterprises.
