(29 Apr 2009) SHOTLIST
1. Zoom out President Raul Castro arriving in conference room
2. Wide shot delegates applauding
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Raul Castro, President of Cuba:
"The measures recently announced by President Obama are positive, but their reach is minimal. The blockade is intact. There is no political nor moral excuse to justify the continuance of that policy."
4. Medium shot Bruno Rodriguez, Foreign Minister of Cuba (left) and Miguel D'Escoto, President of UN Assembly
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Raul Castro, President of Cuba:
"It is not Cuba who has a military base in the United States against their people's wishes, etc, etc, etc, in order not to make this list unending. Therefore, it is not Cuba who has to make gestures."
6. Medium delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Raul Castro, President of Cuba:
"We will discuss everything, everything, everything, of ours but also of theirs on equal grounds."
8. Zoom in Castro leaving podium and hugging D'Escoto
STORYLINE
Raul Castro dismissed Barack Obama's policy changes toward Cuba as "achieving only the minimum," and said Wednesday that it was up to the US, not Cuba, to do more to improve bilateral relations.
He seemed to be placing the diplomatic ball back in Washington's court, saying in a speech before leaders gathered in Havana for a ministerial meeting of the Nonaligned Movement that "it is not Cuba who has to make gestures."
The Obama administration has allowed unlimited travel and money transfers for Americans with cam skattebo family on the island and eased restrictions on telecommunications between the US and Cuba.
But top US officials have also said they would like to see small political and social reforms before truly exploring normalising diplomatic relations, which Washington broke off in January 1961.
Raul Castro's comments echoed those of his ailing older brother Fidel, who said Obama's policy changes did not go far enough because Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo was still in place.
The younger Castro said that the US steps were, "fine, positive but only achieve the minimum" because the embargo remained intact.
Castro said on 16 April that Cuba was willing to sit down with US authorities and discuss "everything, everything, everything," including such thorny issues as human rights and freedom of the press in Cuba and the about 205 political prisoners international observers say island authorities are holding.
That prompted Obama to say during the Summit of the Americas that Washington may be ready for a new beginning with Cuba - though Fidel Castro responded in patrick bruel a subsequent essay that Obama had "misinterpreted" his brother's comments.
The 82-year-old Fidel has not been seen in public since July 2006 and ceded tomb raider the presidency to Raul Castro more than a year ago, but he still writes influential essays almost every day which are published in state-controlled newspapers and read on official radio and television.
On Wednesday, Raul Castro again said Cuba would be willing to sit down with US negotiators, saying "we have reiterated that we are ready to talk about everything with the government of the US under equal conditions."
Find out more about AP Archive:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Instagram:
You can license this story through AP Archive:
