Historic Visit of Barack Obama to Cuba

Barack Obama arrived in Havana, the capital of Cuba, on Sunday. This visit marks the first trip by a sitting U.S. president to Cuba since 1928 and is a milestone in the history of relations between the two countries. In his Nowruz message to Iranians, Obama referred to the decades-long enmity between the U.S. and Cuba, stating that the governments of the U.S. and Cuba have been embroiled in conflict for decades, and not long ago, his trip to Havana would have been unimaginable. Obama added that his visit to Cuba serves as a reminder that old adversaries can chart a new course after decades of distrust. U.S.-Cuba relations soured significantly after the 1959 revolution. In response to Fidel Castro's revolutionary government and Cuba's proximity to the then-Soviet Union, the U.S. imposed extensive sanctions against Cuba and eventually severed diplomatic relations in 1961. The hostility escalated to the point where the U.S. supported a military unit of Cuban exiles in an attempt to overthrow Castro's government, which ultimately failed. A year later, after the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, relations between the two superpowers deteriorated to the brink of nuclear war. In 1962, the U.S. Congress approved a complete economic embargo against Cuba. In 1977, about seventeen years after severing diplomatic ties, the U.S. opened an interests section at the Swiss embassy in Havana. In 1982, Washington accused Cuba of supporting terrorism and placed it on a blacklist. In 1992, Congress passed the Cuban Democracy Act, imposing sanctions on economic relations with Cuba by U.S. companies outside the U.S. Seven years later, the sanctions were slightly eased, allowing flights to Cuba. However, in 2004, President George W. Bush once again restricted travel to Cuba and remittances to the country. With Barack Obama's election in 2009, these restrictions were lifted, and officials from both countries began dialogue. Houshang Amir Ahmadi, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told Radio Farda that Obama's visit to Cuba is historic and beneficial for Cuba. According to Amir Ahmadi, normalizing relations between the two countries faces opposition in both Cuba and the U.S. For the first time, Barack Obama announced on December 17, 2014, that U.S.-Cuba relations would change after more than 50 years. In April 2015, the presidents of the two countries, Barack Obama and Raul Castro, met. After Cuba was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism last May, the two countries resumed diplomatic relations in July of the previous year.