President of the United States Joe Biden has extended for another year the Trading with the Enemy Act, a 1917 regulation under which the blockade of Cuba was imposed, Cuban media reported on Wednesday.
The continuation of the exercise of these authorities with respect to Cuba for one year, until September 14, 2025, is in the national interest of the United States, Biden said in the brief memorandum sent to the Treasury Department, published in the Federal Register.
The Trading with the Enemy Act, enacted under the administration of Woodrow Wilson who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 during the period of World War I (1914 to 1918), empowers the government in power in Washington to restrict commercial activities with any nation that they consider an adversary.
Based on this legislation, on February 7, 1962, Democratic President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 3447, which officially began an economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba that has survived 11 White House administrations.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Thursday that the blockade constitutes a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people and the main obstacle to the country's development.
At current prices, the accumulated damages of the economic, commercial and financial blockade and trade embargo over the past six decades have amounted to the astronomical figure of 164.141 billion U.S. dollars, according to Rodriguez.
Since 1992, the United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favor of the resolution presented by Cuba to lift the blockade. Last year, the draft resolution was approved by 187 countries and opposed only by the United States and Israel, with Ukraine abstaining.
US extends blockade of Cuba for another year
US extends blockade of Cuba for another year
US extends blockade of Cuba for another year
US extends blockade of Cuba for another year
The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 41,965, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli military operations in Gaza caused 56 deaths and 278 injuries in the region, bringing the total injuries to as high as over 97,500, said the authorities.
About 20 armed fighters of Hamas were killed in the northern Gaza's Jabalia region over the past day, according to a report released by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tuesday.
The report added that across Gaza a great number of weapons including grenades, anti-tank rockets, and rifles were seized, many footholds of Hamas were removed, and over 70 targets were stricken from air.
The Israeli military shoot at the offices of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Tuesday after they encircled the institute, said the health authorities in Gaza, adding the military also demanded the patients in multiple hospitals across the Gaza Strip to leave.
An Israeli soldier was killed in a close combat with the Al-Qassam Brigades, said the military wing of Hamas on the same day, adding that it also attacked the Israeli military reinforcements with bombs.
Air-raid siren could be heard in Israel's southern city of Sderot and nearby towns on late Tuesday with the Israeli military claiming that two rockets sent from Gaza were intercepted. Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, claimed the responsibility of the attack. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, the one-year anniversary of Gaza conflict, appealed for peace in the Middle East.
He noted that since Oct. 7, 2023, "a wave of shocking violence and bloodshed has erupted," and the war that followed "continues to shatter lives and inflict profound human suffering for Palestinians in Gaza."
"It is time for the release of the hostages. Time to silence the guns. Time to stop the suffering that has engulfed the region. Time for peace, international law and justice," he said, adding that the UN is fully committed to achieving these goals.
Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza rises to 41,965
