US Removes Cuba From Sponsors Of Terror List

The United States has formally removed Cuba from its state sponsors of terrorism list.

Secretary of State John Kerry signed the order on Friday, effectively dropping the old Cold War foe from the terror blacklist.

The move comes as both countries continue to work toward closer relations.

Cuba's removal from the terror list had been a key demand, and President Barack Obama notified Congress in April that he intended to do so.

US politicians had 45 days to block the move but did not.

Still, some Republicans were critical of the move.

House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement on Friday that the Obama administration had "handed the Castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing".

"The communist dictatorship has offered no assurances it will address its long record of repression and human rights at home," he added.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, considered the front-runner among potential Republican candidates for the White House, called it "a mistake" and "further evidence that President Obama seems more interested in capitulating to our adversaries than in confronting them".

Havana was added to the list in 1982, when it was aiding Marxist insurgencies in Colombia and elsewhere.

Other countries on the list include Iran, Sudan and Syria.

"The rescission of Cuba's designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism reflects our assessment that Cuba meets the statutory criteria for rescission," the State Department said in a news release.

"While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions, these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation."

The US and Cuba have staged several rounds of talks since the landmark announcement by Mr Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro on 17 December that they would be restoring full diplomatic ties for the first time since 1961.

The two leaders held a symbolic meeting in April at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

Both countries have signalled the possibility of reopening embassies in their respective countries , and earlier this month the US lifted a ban on ferry companies operating routes between Florida and Havana.