Global Policy Forum

By Nicole Winfield

The General Assembly resoundingly criticized the United States on Thursday for maintaining sanctions on Cuba for nearly four decades and urged Washington to lift them as soon as possible.

The nonbinding, Cuban-drafted resolution passed with 167 votes in favor - the widest margin in the nine years that Cuba has brought the initiative to the United Nations. Only the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands voted against it. Four countries abstained.

The resolution, introduced by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, was nearly identical to ones approved in years past, even though U.S. legislation approved last month would allow sales of American food and medicine to the communist island for the first time in nearly 40 years. But the law bars the federal government or U.S. banks from financing the shipments, meaning Cuba would have to pay cash or get credit from a third country.

Cuban officials say this year's resolution deliberately omitted any reference to the new U.S. law since Havana believes the legislation has toughened, not eased the embargo. "The alleged authorization for companies to sell food and medicines to Cuba is established under such restrictions and obstacles that render those activities practically impossible," Perez Roque told the assembly before the vote.

Cuba insists on a total lifting of the sanctions imposed in 1962 in an attempt to squeeze President Fidel Castro's government - a call at the core of the resolution. The resolution also expresses concern at sanctions that affect third countries - a reference to the 1996 Helms-Burton act, which was designed to discourage foreign investment in Cuba by punishing foreign companies investing in property confiscated from Americans.

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