Trump: Cuba 'next' on agenda after Iran

(Patria) - US President Donald Trump said Cuba is next on his agenda after Iran, claiming that Havana, crippled by the US energy blockade, will "fall soon", AFP reported.

"They want to make a deal so badly," Trump told CNN in a phone interview, a day after hinting that he would turn to an unspecified project for Cuba after the war against Iran.

"We are really focused on this right now. We have plenty of time, but Cuba is ready, after fifty years," he said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be his main man for Cuba.

Both Trump and Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, have not hidden their desire to bring about regime change in Havana after overthrowing Washington's other enemy in the Caribbean - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The US State Department's coordinator for Cuban affairs, Rob Allison, recently met in Havana with high-ranking representatives of the Catholic Church, the US Embassy in Havana announced on Friday on social network X, without specifying when the meetings took place.
The embassy published a photo of Rob Allison and the US Chargé d'Affaires in Cuba, Mike Hammer, at a meeting with Cardinal Juan de la Claridad and Bishop Arturo Gonzalez, president of the national episcopal conference.

The four discussed humanitarian aid that Washington sent to the island "and the need for changes to improve the situation in Cuba," the embassy added.

No oil tankers since January

Trump has repeatedly said he believes the Cuban regime is ripe for collapse. In an apparent attempt to hasten its fall, he imposed an energy blockade on the Caribbean nation.

The Cuban state has not received oil shipments since January 9, forcing airlines to reduce or suspend flights to the island and deepening a long-standing economic crisis. Havana accuses Trump of trying to suffocate the Cuban economy.

The island, which has been under a US trade embargo since 1962, has been affected by a severe crisis for years, marked by prolonged power outages and shortages of fuel, medicine, and food.

Washington recently slightly eased the oil blockade to allow private companies in Cuba to import small quantities of oil. On Wednesday, two-thirds of the island suffered a power outage after a failure at the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the largest on the island. Electricity has since been restored to most households.

The Catholic Church has previously served as a mediator between Washington and the Cuban government.
Pope Francis negotiated the resumption of diplomatic relations with Washington under President Barack Obama in 2015, after decades of Cold War-era hostility.

The Vatican also negotiated an agreement between Havana and former US President Joe Biden, under which Havana released hundreds of political prisoners in exchange for removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Trump returned Cuba to that list on his first day back in power in January 2025.