Delegates from the U.S. and Cuba met at the State Department in Washington, DC today to continue negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to an unnamed U.S. State Department official, the current negotiations will focus on reopening the embassies. Speaking to whether the embassies will be opened before the Summit of Americas in April, a State Department official said, “Both sides have an interest in doing this as quickly as possible. I hope that we can be done in that kind of a time frame but I just can’t be sure.”
Cuba is likely to link the process to its removal from the U.S. government’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list. The country shares the SSOT designation with Iran, Sudan and Syria. Cuban President Raúl Castro has qualified Cuba’s presence on the SSOT list as “unjustifiable.”
U.S. President Barack Obama announced a review of the designation last December, but that process is still underway. Regarding the ongoing negotiations, a State Department official said, “It would be very easy to reestablish diplomatic relations if [the Cubans] didn’t link the two things.”
The Cuban delegation will reportedly also seek a solution to its banking problems in the United States. Cuba’s Special Interests Section in Washington DC has cited the difficulty of finding banks in the U.S. willing to work with it—and consequently, all consular services are being transacted in cash. The U.S. delegation will reportedly seek to hammer out bureaucratic details, such as the number of representatives allowed at the embassies and the elimination of restrictions on diplomatic pouches.