JAKARTA - President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday said it was trying to remove Cuba from the terrorism blacklist, ahead of the end of the current government next week.
President Joe Biden's announcement effectively lifted many of the sanctions imposed by President-elect Trump during his previous term ending in 2021. If they survive, they will represent the most significant progress in US-Kuba relations since President Barack Obama's era.
Biden's planned announced - which is still under review of the upcoming Congress and Trump's administration - will lift Trump's 2021 appointment of Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism, which will ease sanctions on islands that have suffered a deep economic crisis.
They will also revoke Trump's 2017 order to limit financial transactions with several Cuban entities linked to the military and government, according to a senior government official.
President Biden also attempted to prevent individuals from filing lawsuits against Cuban entities and foreign companies under the Helms-Burton Act on property confiscated after the 1959 Fidel Castro revolution, the official said.
In a short letter to Congress, President Biden said the actions announced on Tuesday were "needed in the national interest of the United States and would accelerate the transition to democracy in Cuba."
Trump - a strong Cuban critic who appointed the island as a sponsoring country of terrorism - has not commented on the move but has pledged to be tough on the communist-ruled country.
He also nominated US Senator Marco Rubio, the son of an immigrant from Cuba and a vocal critic of the island's government, as Secretary of State.
Trump, who will take office on January 20, may be trying to revive sanctions that Biden canceled while in office.
US Congressman Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, said Biden's move could be canceled.
"Whatever they do right now, we can do it back, and no one should be in any illusion in terms of Cuban policy changes," Waltz told Fox News.
Trump's transition team and Rubio's Senate office did not respond to requests for comment.
A US official said President Biden and Trump's teams had "communicate" on the topic.
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Trump put Cuba on the US State List of Counterterrorism Sponsors in 2021 in the final hours of his first term, saying Havana had repeatedly provided "support for international acts of terrorism" by protecting US fugitives and Colombian rebel leaders.
Cuba denies the allegations, calls the appointment a joke and asks to be removed from the list, which includes a ban on US economic assistance and a ban on US arms exports.
Biden officials said a recent review of Cuba's inclusion on the list had been the basis of their decision.
"In our review, what we found was that there is no current credible evidence of Cuba's ongoing support for international terrorism," said one US official.
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