WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – Donald Trump has said the U.S. is talking to Cuba, its leaders should agree to a deal and that could easily be done, a White House official said on Friday, reiterating the U.S. president’s previous remarks after Havana confirmed that negotiations were under way.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said earlier that his government had opened talks with Washington, as an oil blockade imposed by Trump pushes the Communist-run nation deeper into economic crisis.
“As the President stated, we are talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal, which he believes ‘would be very easily made’,” the White House official said, on condition of anonymity.
Diaz-Canel said in a video aired on state television that negotiations “have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations.”
Since the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, removing Cuba’s most important foreign benefactor, Trump has cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells oil to Cuba.
On Monday, Trump said Cuba may be subject to a “friendly takeover,” then added, “it may not be a friendly takeover.”
The Caribbean nation’s citizens, exhausted by years of economic crisis and shortages, now live the majority of their days without electricity, strictly rationed fuel and shortages of medicine.
“Cuba is a failing nation whose rulers have had a major setback with the loss of support from Venezuela and with Mexico ceasing to send them oil,” the White House official said.
(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; editing by David Gaffen)
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