Cuba’s foreign minister has accused the US of building a “fraudulent case” for military intervention, following a report that it had acquired attack drones capable of targeting Florida.
Bruno Rodríguez stressed that Havana “neither threatens nor desires war” after US news site Axios reported, citing classified intelligence, that Cuba now possessed 300 drones and was discussing striking nearby US targets.
Cuba is suffering from a fuel crisis, exacerbated by an effective US oil blockade, while under pressure by the Trump administration to “make a deal”.
US President Donald Trump has threatened Cuba’s communist regime with similar intervention to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Cuba is thought to now be considering using the drones to hit Guantanamo Bay, the US military base on the Caribbean island, as well as naval vessels and possibly Key West in Florida, according to the Axios report published on Sunday.
It quoted a US official who said the intelligence – which it characterised as a potential pretext for US military intervention – also suggested Iranian military advisers were in Havana.
Iranian drones have been central to drone warfare in both the war in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“Without any legitimate excuse whatsoever, the US government builds, day after day, a fraudulent case to justify the ruthless economic war against the Cuban people and the eventual military aggression,” Rodríguez wrote on social media.
Credit: bbc.com
