UNGA votes 136-9 to override US bid to halt debate on embargo against Cuba, Pakistan seeks its end

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 08 (APP): With Pakistan supporting, the UN General Assembly overwhelming voted to debate United States’ sanctions against Cuba in a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the decades-long embargo amid warnings of increasing suffering in the Caribbean island.

The vote in the 193-member Assembly was 136 in favour to 9 against, with 30 abstentions, to proceed with a special debate regarding United States embargo against Cuba.

Voting against the resolution, besides the US, were: Argentina, Israel, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Morocco, the Czech Republic, North Macedonia and Ukraine.

This procedural vote to place the economic embargo on the assembly’s debate agenda was championed by Cuba, overcoming strong objections from the United States delegation. The debate itself featured extensive discussions and drew support from a broad coalition of African, Asian, Latin American, and European nations.

“We share the concerns regarding the impact of the economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba and its people,” Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said after the vote.

‘Ending the embargo will be an important step to alleviate the humanitarian situation, also enabling the Cuban people to realize their right to development and prosperity,”  the Pakistani envoy said.

Pakistan’s commitment to multilateralism and the UN Charter is “consistent and longstanding,” he pointed out.

“We believe that international cooperation, and multilateral engagement- underpinned by sovereign equality and mutual respect remain the cornerstone of global order,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad said.

“Unilateral economic measures particularly their selective application on developing countries run counter to those principles.”

At the outset of the debate, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla accused the United States of carrying out “multidimensional, non-conventional warfare” against his country, which has “become ever-more cruel over the last seven months.”

He first drew attention to the energy siege – which is equivalent to a naval blockade, an act of war.  Cuba’s access to fuel supplies is being hindered by direct threats, unilateral coercive actions and intimidation of oil tankers by the United States military.

Added to these pressures are “unprecedented actions of an extreme extraterritorial nature,” the Cuban foreign minister said, pointing to the use of secondary actions enacted to pursue the “macabre” goal of provoking a humanitarian crisis and complete destabilization of Cuba.

This would “forcefully urge an imperialist military intervention” and provoke a bloodbath, he stressed.

In recent months, the humanitarian toll has intensified, Rodriguez Parrilla continued, resulting in the systematic violation of the human rights of an entire people – an act of collective punishment.

Such “highly important and urgent” matters deserve the clearest statement by the UN and its most universal and representative body, he said: the General Assembly.

The Cuban foreign minister drew attention to Cuban families who are suffering from blackouts, a lack of water, shortages of medication, food scarcity and the high prices of staple goods.

On the other hand, US Ambassador Michael Waltz said that, despite talk of a blackout, “there always seems to be enough power for the Cuban dictatorship”.

Indeed, enough power for “the Cuban propaganda shop” to “clip and post and translate their lies they’re spreading in this body, once again, around the world”.

He urged the Cuban regime:  “Change your ways, turn the lights back on for your people.

“Against that backdrop, he recalled that on 11 July 2021, “thousands of Cubans filled the streets and demanded freedom” – at which point, Cuba’s Foreign Minister pounded on the desk in a point of order, branding the US ambassador “a liar” and demanding that he be called to decorum.

Continuing, Ambassador Waltz said those in the streets were demanding their freedom, “sick of a regime that sits on billions while its people starve”.

“Communism never worked,” he said.  “It doesn’t work and it will not work.”