Obama Takes Cuba Off Terror List After Castro Meeting, State Department Review

President Obama will remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terror list, he told Congress on Tuesday. The move will allow Cuban officials to use U.S. banks, facilitating recent efforts to rekindle ties between the two countries. Specifically, the move could speed up U.S. and Cuban plans to open embassies in Havana and Washington, respectively. The decision followed a lengthy State Department review and recommendation to President Obama, which he insisted on studying “thoroughly” before announcing his final verdict.

Obama told congress that the government of Cuba "has not provided any support for international terrorism" and "has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future." Cuba has supported groups and individuals in the past whom the U.S. considered terrorists. Conservative U.S. lawmakers cite some of those individuals, who still reside in Cuba, as reasons not to take Cuba off of the list. However, the White House does not need approval from congress -- only notification to them -- to decide who is on or off of the list.

"We will continue to have differences with the Cuban government, but our concerns over a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions fall outside the criteria" for the terror White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

Obama’s announcement follows his first formal meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro last weekend at the 7th Summit of the Americas, where both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to stronger ties between their respective countries despite past grievances and ongoing disagreements. At that summit, Castro said that removal from the list would be a big step towards improved relations.

“I welcome as a positive step [Obama’s] recent announcement that he will soon decide on Cuba's designation in a list of countries sponsor of terrorism, a list in which it should have never been included, imposed by the government of Ronald Reagan,” Castro said, over the weekend.

“Circumstances have changed since 1982, when Cuba was originally designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism because of its efforts to promote armed revolution by forces in Latin America,” said Ernest. “Our Hemisphere, and the world, look very different today than they did 33 years ago. Our determination, pursuant to the facts, including corroborative assurances received from the Government of Cuba and the statutory standard, is that the time has come to rescind Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.”