Rice: US not ready to lift Cuba trade embargo despite storm

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

RABAT (AFP) — The United States is not prepared to lift its trade embargo against Cuba, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday, after Havana urged Washington to ease restrictions in the wake of a devastating hurricane.

"I don't think in the context that we see now that the lifting of the embargo would be wise," Rice told reporters during a visit to Morocco.

On Saturday Cuba's Foreign Ministry sought an easing of the decades-old embargo to allow US firms to open private lines of credit for food imports to the Caribbean island reeling from Hurricane Gustav, and as another major storm loomed.

"If the US government has the real will to cooperate with the Cuban people after the hurricane tragedy, it is requested that they... suspend restrictions that...