Cuban embassy a 'slap in the face' of Israel: GOP senator
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says the Obama administration’s decision to reopen the US embassy in the Cuban capital, Havana, is a “slap in the face” of Israel.
The senator from Texas made the remarks on Wednesday night, hours after President Barack Obama announced that the US and Cuba have reached an agreement to reopen embassies in each other's capitals and re-establish diplomatic ties.
Cruz called Obama's announcement "unacceptable and a slap in the face of a close ally that the United States will have an embassy in Havana before one in Jerusalem (al-Quds)."
The United States maintains an embassy in Tel Aviv, but Cruz has repeatedly demanded that Washington move its embassy to al-Quds.
Cruz, along with Cuban-American senator Marco Rubio, have sponsored a congressional bill that would annul a national security waiver which allows the administration to bypass a 1995 law to move the embassy to al-Quds.
Cruz and Rubio are competing with a dozen other Republicans to get funding for their presidential campaigns, which mostly comes from groups and business tycoons linked to the Zionist lobby. Analysts say that’s the basic reason they are making pro-Israel statements.
Obama announced in December that Washington will start talks with Cuba to normalize diplomatic relations, marking the most significant shift in US foreign policy towards the communist country in over 50 years.
The two countries held 18 months of secret talks that led to a joint announcement on December 17 that the two long-time adversaries would restore diplomatic relations and release prisoners on both sides.
Obama held talks with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in April, the first meeting between the nations' leaders since 1956.
The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, two years after Raul’s older brother, Fidel Castro, came to power.
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