Flake: U.S. thaw on Cuba 'overdue'

When President Barack Obama moved Tuesday to cross off Cuba from the U.S. State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, few were as relieved as Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who for years has pushed to end anti-Cuba economic policies, particularly the ban on U.S. travel to the country.

"It was long overdue," said Flake, an outspoken Republican ally of Obama on the issue.

In a sign of thawing Cold War tensions, Obama announced the plan days after his Saturday face-to-face meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro at an Organization of American States summit in Panama.

The White House on Dec. 17 had indicated that it would take a fresh look at Cuba's inclusion on the list of state sponsors of terror as part of a historic shift in the two nations' long-antagonistic relationship.

"This is kind of a precursor to diplomatic relations, and with the diplomatic relations, we can better press human-rights issues with their government," Flake said Tuesday. "We'll have more leverage than we do now."

Cuba has been on the terror list since March 1, 1982. The other countries, which are subject to assorted sanctions, are Iran, Sudan and Syria.

"After a careful review of Cuba's record, which was informed by the Intelligence Community, as well as assurances provided by the Cuban government, the Secretary of State concluded that Cuba met the conditions for rescinding its designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism," the White House said Tuesday in a written statement. "The Secretary of State therefore recommended that the president make and submit to Congress the statutorily required report and certification."

The president's report must certify Cuba hasn't provided support for international terrorism in the past six months and that its government has signaled it won't do so in the future.

According to past State Department reports, Cuba "has long provided safe haven to members of (the terrorist organizations) Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)."

Cuba also continues to harbor fugitives wanted in the United States.

"There are other countries that have fugitives as well, and it doesn't usually land them on the state-sponsored terrorism list," Flake said.

Flake's support for Obama's de-listing of Cuba puts him in a lonely position among his fellow Republicans.

Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., a former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, ripped Obama in a statement that accused the president of endangering the United States while "emboldening a brutal regime merely 90 miles south of our shore that despises the very principles on which our nation was founded."

"The president overlooks the state of Cuba's continued harboring of foreign terrorists and violent fugitives, and he intentionally disregards the state of Cuba's illegal weapons shipments," Salmon said. "Most importantly, he willfully dismisses the evidence linking Cuba to the terrorist group Hezbollah and other state sponsors of terrorism like Iran and Venezuela."

Speaking generally, Flake said some Republicans who oppose relaxing the hard-line U.S. position vs. Cuba have a difficult time acknowledging it didn't work.

Castro and his brother Fidel Castro, the former prime minister and president who led Cuba from 1959 to 2008, have kept their grip on the country despite decades of harsh U.S. policies dating back more than a half-century to President John F. Kennedy's administration.

"Most of it has to do with (the fact) we've had this policy so long that to change it now, some see as kind of a concession, or an admission of defeat somehow, because the Castro brothers are still there," Flake said. "Instead of acknowledging, 'Hey, this policy hasn't been the right policy for a long time.' "

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a left-leaning independent from Vermont, agreed it's time for a change.

"While we have our strong differences with Cuba, it is not a terrorist state," Sanders said. "I applaud President Obama for moving aggressively to develop normal diplomatic relations. Fifty years of Cold War is enough."