US-Cuba tensions sharpen as Obama honeymoon ends

HAVANA (AFP) – US-Cuba tensions are on the rise over a US decision to include Cuba in strict aviation security checks imposed after a foiled Al-Qaeda airline bomb plot, ending President Barack Obama's fleeting honeymoon in Havana.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called in the top US diplomat in Havana, Jonathan Farrar, head of the US Interests Section, to lodge a protest over being included in a list of 14 countries requiring special scrutiny at airports.

"We categorically reject this new hostile action by the US government, which stems from the unfair inclusion of Cuba on the (State Department) list of state sponsors of terrorism," a ministry statement said.

The list "is politically motivated and its only goal is to justify the policy of economic embargo (against Cuba) that the international community is united in rejecting," the statement added.

The US State Department claims that Cuba gives safe haven to "terrorists," including members of the Basque separatist group ETA, leftist Colombian rebels the National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)

Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma, said the US measures were tantamount to "antiterrorist paranoia."

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said the new measures would include random "enhanced" checks on all international passengers flying into US airports, as well as compulsory stricter screenings of those coming from or via 14 countries. All but Cuba are Muslim-majority nations.

Besides Cuba, the countries targeted by the new measures include Iran, Sudan and Syria, all US-designated state sponsors of terrorism. They also apply to passengers traveling from or via Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria.

There are no regular flights between Cuba and the United States, but four daily charter flights connect Havana with three US cities, including Miami, where more than one million Cuban exiles and immigrants reside.

The charter flights were increased to eight per day in late December, after Obama earlier lifted some travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba.

Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 and imposed comprehensive economic sanctions on the communist island.

Both governments recently resumed negotiations on migration and postal exchange issues, but efforts to end the boycott are stymied by US insistence that Cuba should change its policies, while Havana suggests the United States do the same.