Cuba postpones UN resolution against U.S. trade embargo due to pandemic

Cuba on Wednesday said it will postpone until next year the draft resolution it annually submits to the United Nations General Assembly, condemning the U.S. trade embargo against the island.

Cuba's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Anayansi Rodriguez told a press conference: "this decision is solely due to the ... COVID-19 pandemic and its direct impact on the work at UN headquarters" in New York.

According to Rodriguez, "the complex epidemiological situation derived from the COVID-19 pandemic at a global level and particularly in the United States, including New York City, will lead to changes in the normal development of the work of the United Nations General Assembly in its 75th session," which for the first time will be held "virtually" starting in September.

"That will have repercussions on the debate and vote on the resolution," she said, leading the government to opt to postpone the measure.

While the UN resolution is not legally binding, it is believed to put pressure on Washington to rethink its six-decade-old Cold War-era policy toward the island, which is designed to undermine Cuba's economy.

First imposed in 1962, the embargo has been intensified by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which has banned U.S. flights to Cuban cities except Havana, barred U.S. cruise ships and yachts from visiting the island, and limited remittances Cuban-Americans send to their families on the island.

(CGTN)