U.S. President Joe Biden plans to relax sanctions targeting long-time foe Cuba, U.S. officials said on Tuesday just days before Donald Trump takes office, in a broad set of steps that Biden expects to lead to the release of political prisoners in Havana, APA reports citing Reuters.
The measures include a reversal of several hardline restrictions put in place by Trump, his predecessor and the president-elect.
Those steps include plans to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and undoing a Trump order that had restricted some financial transactions with some military and government-tied Cubans, according to a senior administration official.
Biden was also set to suspend the ability of individuals to use U.S. courts to make claims for potentially confiscated property in Cuba following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, the official said.
The steps were connected to the expected release by Cuba of a "significant" number of political prisoners, U.S. officials said, following the communist-run government's talks with the Catholic Church. They did not specify the number of prisoners or give a time frame.
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Cuba faced sharp criticism from rights groups, the United States and the European Union following the imprisonment of hundreds of protesters after riots on July 11, 2021, the largest since Castro's revolution.
The announcements mark Biden's first real break in policy from Trump-era sanctions that have contributed to one of Cuba's worst economic crises.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, may seek to revive the sanctions once in office. He has promised a hard line on Cuba and has nominated Marco Rubio, the son of immigrants from Cuba and an outspoken critic of the island's government, as secretary of state.
The Trump transition team and Rubio's Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a brief letter to Congress, Biden said his steps were "necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba."
An official said Biden and Trump's teams had "been in communication" on the topic.
