HAVANA TIMES — Former Cuban President Fidel Castro offered the United States today his country’s cooperation in the fight against Ebola, despite the rivalry that has kept the two countries at odds for more than half a century, reported dpa news.

“We gladly cooperate with American personnel in this task (the fight against Ebola), and not in pursuit of peace between the two states that have been adversaries for many years but, in any case, for world peace,” Castro said in an article published in the official newspaper “Granma”.

In the text entitled “The time of duty,” the former president praises Cuba’s sending aid to Africa to fight the current epidemic of Ebola.

Cuba gave a “fast response” to the request of the UN, “as it has always done before such a request for cooperation,” said Castro, who ruled the island for nearly half a century until 2006. Today he is the chief advisor to the government of his brother Raul Castro.

Earlier this month Cuba sent a group of 165 medical aid workers in Sierra Leone and has offered to send nearly 300 more to Liberia and Guinea. The three countries are the most affected by the epidemic.

Castro also praised the upcoming summit on Ebola by the countries that make up the left-wing ALBA bloc (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America), to take place on Monday in Havana.

Although removed from power since 2006 after falling seriously ill, the 88-year-old Cuban leader publishes opinion pieces from time-to-time on the front page of the island’s controlled press. His positions on the issues at hand, mainly regarding foreign policy, routinely translate into the stance of the Communist Party and the government.