U.N. rejects Cuba embargo...again (Updated)

Update (4:00pm):

For the eighteenth straight year, the U.N. General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution condemning the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Much like last year's measure, the body voted 185-3 against the embargo with the same trio of states opposing the resolution (Israel, Palau, and the U.S.)

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice criticized the decision and urged the U.N. to "move beyond the rhetorical posturing of the past." Conversely, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called the blockade "an uncultured act of arrogance" that is "ethically unacceptable."

Original Post:

The U.N.’s General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to vote later today against the decades-long U.S. trade blockade against Cuba.

Today’s vote would make it the eighteenth straight year that the UNGA condemns the embargo on Cuba; in 2008, the body voted 185-3 against the embargo. The nonbinding resolution to be considered today would call for a stop to "the economic, commercial and financial embargo" that has been placed against Cuba since 1962.

In the last few months there has been a slight thawing in the traditionally frigid relations between both countries. For instance, travel restrictions have been relaxed and bilateral migration talks were renewed. Nevertheless, U.S. president Barack Obama insisted in September that the embargo needed to be continued for “the national interest of the United States."

While the White House wants to continue the embargo the Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas recently wrote that the U.S. faces stiff opposition among its regional and global allies:

They are plain-spoken in their opposition. Australia reminds us it votes "consistently" against the embargo. Brazil says it is the "Cuban people who suffer the most from the blockade." China says the embargo "serves no purpose other than to keep tensions high between two neighboring countries and inflict tremendous hardship and suffering on the people of Cuba, especially women and children." Egypt and India condemn the extra-territorial reach of our sanctions, which Japan says run "counter to the provisions of international law." Mexico calls these measures coercive. Russia "rejects" the embargo. Nations across the planet have enacted laws making it illegal for their companies to comply.

For now, there may be little Obama can do to ease the embargo beyond outright banning it. “Unless Cuba takes steps [toward democracy] the ball is in Congress' court,'' said an unnamed “government official” to the Miami Herald regarding a report published weeks ago by the Government Accountability Office on the embargo.

Image- Al Jazeera English
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Xinhua, Miami Herald