UN General Assembly backs call to end US embargo on Cuba – SABC News – Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa’s news leader.

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a draft resolution titled the “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”.

This is the 34th time the body has adopted this non-binding resolution since 1992 while the United States continues to reject such efforts.

South Africa, for its part, has called for a resumption of stalled talks between Cuba and the United States in an effort to ameliorate the dire humanitarian conditions on the island nation.

Today’s vote, which included support from Pretoria, followed a day high drama in the Assembly on Tuesday when the Cuban delegation engaged in a verbal clash while the US envoy.

A clear majority in support of the text – 130 in favour, 17 against and 25 abstentions.

A day earlier, tense scenes in the Assembly when Cuba’s delegation demanded a point of order while the US Ambassador was criticising Cuba’s government as a corrupt elite, drawing fierce objections from Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez who formally addressed the Assembly, accusing Washington of an absurd policy that puts a blockade on everything that sustains life.

“A great power is attacking through economic war. A member state of this organization. It is attacking an independent, peace loving, solidarity based and small nation. It is doing so in order to dominate and effect a regime change. This aggression. This attack includes a fuel blockade, one which is equivalent to a naval blockade and is an act of war, an act of collective punishment, and of genocide prescribed by international law. The dire consequences of this blockade are felt by people. They restrict their fundamental rights, affect third countries, and turn the basic needs of the people into instruments of political coercion,” says Rodriguez.

US Ambassador Mike Waltz denied that the embargo even existed, calling it “fake” and “phony” – and further sought to portray Cuba’s government and their families as living lives of luxury while ordinary Cuban’s continued to suffer.

“My message to Havana is simple: free the prisoners, stop exploiting your own people, tell the Cuban people and the world where the money has gone. To my fellow ambassadors, do not hand Havana another propaganda victory. Don’t lend your votes to the abuse of the Cuban people. And even now, the regime has resorted to a complete and utter lie that the United States is threatening countries with reprisals over their vote. Every year, this corrupt regime uses this vote and this body to then go back and lie to the Cuban people that the world is with them. You are participating in that. You are complicit,” says Waltz.

Pretoria’s envoy, Mxolisi Nkosi, told the Assembly that the restrictions imposed on Cuba were an impediment to its development and exacerbated the socio-economic hardship of the Cuban people.

“The prevailing situation in Cuba should concern us all, particularly from a humanitarian perspective, given the deteriorating socio-economic situation in Cuba and its impact on the health and livelihoods of the Cuban people. Consistent with the decision of this august Assembly against the embargo imposed against Cuba, we have a duty to send a strong message for an end to the human suffering that the Cuban people are enduring due to the embargo.”

Nkosi further called a resumption in talks between Havana and Washington, the termination of the embargo and the additional measures imposed by the United States, the removal of Cuba from the U.S. list of U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism and for the suspension of the application of the Helms-Burton Act which strengthened and entrenched the embargo against Cuba in 1996.

“South Africa reaffirms its enduring friendship and solidarity with Cuba and its steadfast commitment to multilateralism, international law, as well as the sovereign right of all nations to pursue their chosen development path,” adds Nkosi.

After the drama in the chamber, the focus now shifts back to what Washington might do amid suggestions of possible military action against Havana.

So, while Cuba has secured another General Assembly call for an end to the embargo, the non-binding resolution offers no immediate relief.

Lifting the embargo requires action by the US Congress and a major shift in posture from the administration of President Donald Trump which appears unlikely in the immediate term.