Former USINT Chief is Optimistic about US-Cuba Talks

Former chief of the US Interest Section in Havana, Wayne Smith, said in Washington that he feels optimistic about today´s bilateral US-Cuba talks aimed at reestablishing diplomatic relations.
 
Smith told Cuban reporters accredited in Washington to cover the talks, that he has waited 53 years to see the dialog take place and that he is very happy about it.
 
The US diplomat, who headed the US Interest Section here between 1979 and 1982, stresse the December 17  announcement by presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama to advance towards the normalization of bilateral relations and he called on the Obama administration to withdraw Cuba from the US blacklist of countries sponsors of international terrorism.
 
He said that there is no evidence to include the island on the blacklist and that he was surprised that Cuba was not excluded from it before the current talks took place.