Cuba Defends Trade Barriers After UN Vote

The United Nations General Assembly voted on Wednesday to condemn the US economic embargo on Cuba for another year.

The resolution passed with 130 countries in favor. Seventeen nations opposed the measure, including the United States and Israel. Twenty-five countries abstained from the vote.

Germany and Italy both chose to abstain on Wednesday. Both countries had voted in favor of the resolution in previous years. The assembly has voted to condemn the embargo every year for more than three decades.

Bruno Rodriguez, the Cuban foreign minister, posted on social media after the vote that the US was "once again isolated in its attempt to continue strangling the Cuban people." He said that US pretexts and media efforts would not prevail over facts and truth.

US officials argued that the rise in abstentions showed their diplomatic push was working. Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, told reporters that he was "satisfied that so many countries now, including major economies like Korea, like Germany and others have shifted their position." Waltz said the tripling of countries that shifted their stance suggests that trend will continue to grow.

The vote followed a heated exchange on Tuesday during a General Assembly debate. US and Cuban officials shouted at each other and appeared to have a physical altercation. Waltz said on Wednesday that Richard Tur de la Concepcion, a first secretary at Cuba's UN mission, would be expelled from the US for assaulting an American diplomat. The US and Cuban missions had not responded to requests for comment as of Wednesday.