Pringle and Cuba Ireland Parliamentary Friendship Group call on Government to press US to end Cuba blockade
- Updated: 26th October 2022
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, on behalf of the Oireachtas Cuba Friendship Group, has called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence to impress on the US administration the need to end the illegal 60-year blockade of Cuba.
Writing to the minister on behalf of the friendship group, Deputy Pringle said: “I wish to call on you to use your offices and Ireland’s position on the UN Security Council to impress on the US administration the need to end the 60-year illegal blockade of the Republic of Cuba and seek its immediate removal from the arbitrary US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“As we know you are aware the current US regime has arbitrarily continued to include Cuba on its unilateral list of state sponsors of terrorism. This is on top of the intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade with the application of 240 sanctions aimed at hitting all sectors of its economy. Two hundred of the most important Cuban companies and entities were included in a blacklist with which any type of transaction is prohibited. This amounts to $12 million per day in punitive sanctions on a country that cannot afford such sanctions.
“The Cuba Ireland Parliamentary Friendship Group are calling on you, Minister, to make public Ireland’s rejection of the inclusion of Cuba in such a list, Ireland’s rejection of the continued illegal blockade of Cuba and to call for a change in US foreign policy in this area.
“Minister, we ask that you instruct our representatives to pursue this action with vigour at the United Nations General Assembly and on the Security Council as well,” Deputy Pringle said.
Deputy Pringle wrote to the minister on behalf of himself, Senator Paul Gavan, Sean Crowe TD, Pat Buckley TD, Catherine Connolly TD, and Chris Andrews TD.
