– After 23 attempts, outcome still the same.
For the 23rd straight year, the United Nations voted Tuesday in favor of lifting the US embargo on Cuba, with Iran saying the ban was undeserved, given Havana’s help in fighting Ebola. The UN General Assembly adopted the non-binding resolution on ending the five-decade embargo by a vote of 188 in favor, with two countries voting against: the United States and Israel. The Pacific island-states of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands abstained. The outcome was the same as last year.
The economic damage inflicted on Cuba, totals more than one trillion dollars, Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Rodriguez argued, warning that the human cost is on the rise. About 77 percent of Cubans were born under the embargo regime, which causes hardship to families. The minister said countries should cooperate to fight the Ebola outbreak and new security threats, making it necessary to “change our attitude” and seek cooperation for “the survival of humanity.”
Cuba has sent some 250 doctors, nurses and other health care workers to West Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic, winning praise from the United States and other countries for its help. Iranian Ambassador Hossein Dehghani called the embargo “undeserved” and said Cuba had shown it was a valued international player.
The US representative to the debate, Ronald Godard, called the annual vote a “meaningless exercise” and said the United Nations should instead work to support the pro-democracy movement in Cuba. “This annual exercise points to no good end, to obscure some fundamental truths,” he said.
The United States imposed an economic embargo on communist Cuba in 1960, at the height of the Cold War.
Extracted and modified from Yahoo News
