Rubio: Cuba has accepted US emergency aid

TT

Published 17.54

 

Marco Rubio before the press conference in Miami. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson /AP/TT

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that Cuba has agreed to receive US emergency aid.

Before a press conference in Miami, before leaving for Sweden for the NATO summit in Helsingborg, Rubio says that Cuba "has accepted" the offer of emergency aid - but that it remains to be seen how it all ends.

The US has offered Cuba emergency aid worth 100 million dollars, with the condition that it be handled by the Catholic Church and other non-governmental institutions.

Cuba – whose economic crisis has escalated after Washington cut off oil supplies to the island – has previously dismissed this, instead suggesting that the US lift the US trade embargo imposed in the 1960s.

Washington’s aggressiveness towards its old communist enemy Cuba has increased in recent years, including the recent indictment of former President Raúl Castro.