UN General Assembly condemns embargo on Cuba

UNITED NATIONS. October 27. KAZINFORM The UN General Assembly adopted the 19th resolution condemning the U.S. economic, trade and financial embargo on Cuba on Tuesday; Kazinform refers to ITAR-TASS.

The resolution was adopted with 187 votes to two. Three countries abstained.

Delegates welcomed the resolution with applause, and many delegation members approached Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez to congratulate him.

Cuba presented the first draft resolution to that effect to the UN General Assembly in 1992, and the resolution gained support of 52 countries. The number of countries calling for the end of the embargo has been growing since then.

In contrast to resolutions of the UN Security Council, resolutions of the UN General Assembly are advisory.

The economic blockade of Cuba is an anachronism, which fails to meet modern requirements, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said.

"We expect that last year's steps of the U.S. President Barack Obama administration, which lifted the restrictions on Cuban visits of American citizens that have family members in Cuba and postal and bank transfers to Cubans from the United States, as well as the resumed dialog on migration issues, will soon be supplemented with other actions, which will improve bilateral [U.S.-Cuban] relations and finally lead to the invalidation of the obsolete trade and economic embargo on Cuba," he said; Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.

See www.itar-tass.com/eng for full version