WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Cuba provided official written assurances to the United States that it will no longer support terrorist groups, particularly those at war with the governments in Spain and Columbia, in order to get delisted as a state sponsor of terror, US State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke said on Wednesday.
“The Cuba government provided the United States, in writing, official assurances… that it would not support acts of international terrorism,” Rathke said.
Cuba submitted the official assurance to the US State Department as part of a process that began in December 2014 to determine if the island nation should be removed from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) list, the US spokesperson noted.
Rathke explained Cuba swore it would never permit members of the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), an armed Basque nationalist group, to live in Cuba or use Cuban territory to carry out attacks against the Spanish government.
“The government of Spain has assured the government of the United States that it is satisfied with this process,” Rathke added.
Cuba has also committed not to harbour or support any members of Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a guerrilla group that has been at war with the Columbian government since the 1960s.
“There is no credible evidence that the government of Cuba has, in the last six months, provided material support, services or resources to members of the FARC,” Rathke noted.
Moreover, Cuba agreed to engage in dialogue about returning fugitives to the United States as part of the normalization process between the two countries, Rathke said.
The United States placed Cuba on the SST list in 1982 for providing safe haven to ETA and FARC members, according to the State Department.
US President Barack Obama administration announced its intention to normalize US-Cuba relations in December 2014. Obama said he intended to re-open the US Embassy in Havana and to lift the trade and travel embargo on Cuba.
