US president-elect Donald Trump has offered an olive branch to the Castro regime in Cuba, saying that he is willing to continue the Obama administration’s renewed relations if Havana improves the terms.
“If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the US as a whole, I will terminate [the] deal,” Mr Trump tweeted on Monday.
The overture comes two days after the president-in-waiting said that he hoped that the death of former Cuban president Fidel Castro on Friday night “marks a move away” from the totalitarian Castro regime. He described Mr Castro as “a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades”.
Mr Trump vowed during the campaign to unwind Mr Obama’s measures that reopened diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba unless the regime of president Raul Castro (85), the younger brother of Fidel who has led the country for the past decade, offered more concessions to the United States.
‘Do whatever’
Mr Trump has said he is “fine” with Mr Obama’s December 2014 agreement reopening ties with Cuba but that he would “do whatever” to secure a better deal including a threat to break off diplomatic relations.
The property and entertainment tycoon who, before he entered politics, explored opportunities on the island in 1998 and again in 2012 and 2013, accused Mr Obama of signing a “very weak agreement”.
“We get nothing. The people of Cuba get nothing, and I would do whatever is necessary to get a good agreement. An agreement is fine,” he said while campaigning in Florida last month.
Mr Trump’s incoming chief-of-staff Reince Priebus told Fox News on Sunday that the president-elect was “absolutely” willing to reverse Mr Obama’s opening-up of Cuba to US visitors and businesses, and that the next administration’s stance on relations would depend on what Havana is willing to do.
Some movement
“Repression, open markets, freedom of religion, political prisoners – these things need to change in order to have open and free relationships,” said Mr Priebus.
“There’s going to have to be some movement from Cuba in order to have a relationship with the United States.”
Mr Obama bypassed Republican opponents to his Cuba detente by signing executive actions that extend the legal importation of Cuban rum and cigars by US citizens who visit the island and significantly increase the number of Americans who can visit the island and US companies which can conduct business in Cuba.
‘Extraordinarily complicated’
The White House said that it would be “extraordinarily complicated and costly” to try to unravel Mr Obama’s agreement with Cuba given that it has already been implemented by the American people and businesses.
The outgoing US president’s spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House that there would soon be 110 daily flights operating between the US and Cuba for which Americans have bought tickets.
Unwinding Mr Obama’s restored relations with Havana would mean “a significant blow” to the Cuban people and it was “not as easy as a stroke of a pen,” he said.
Asked about Mr Trump’s tweet threatening to “terminate” the US-Cuban deal if Havana did not agree to be improved conditions for the US, Mr Earnest said that it was “not as simple as one tweet might make it seem”.
“There are significant economic, diplomatic and cultural costs that will have to be accounted for if this policy is rolled back,” he said.
