The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution on Tuesday calling on the USs to end its decades-long trade embargo against Cuba.

 

With a vote of 184 in favor, four against and one abstention, the 192-member assembly repeated a call on the US to end its economic and commercial embargo against Cuba. The US, Marshall Islands and Palau cast the negative vote while Micronesia abstained.

 

It was the 16th consecutive year since 1992 for the General Assembly to approve a resolution urging the US to lift its embargo against Cuba. The UN body voted 183-4 to approve a similar resolution last year.

 

The resolution, entitled "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," reiterated its call on all states to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures such as those in the US embargo.

 

It urged "states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime."

 

"The blockade had never been enforced with such viciousness as over the last year," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the assembly before the Tuesday vote.

 

He described the US ignorance of the previous 15 resolutions passed by the assembly as "arrogance and political blindness."

 

The "brutal economic war" imposed on Cuba has not only affected Cubans, but also hurt the interests of many other countries, he said, adding that the embargo has caused economic damage to Cuba of over US$89 billion in more than 40 years.

 

Delivering a speech at the State Department last week, US President George W. Bush vowed to keep the US economic embargo on the neighboring island country.

 

"As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the US will keep the embargo in place," Bush said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2007)