play Live Sign upShow navigation menuplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upNewsUS says it is open to talks with Cuba if it changes governmentMarco Rubio made comments after Trump called Cuba a ‘failed state’ at the UN, prompting Cuban delegation to walk out.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press gaggle after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, on September 23, 2026 [Yuki Iwamura/Pool/AFP]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 23 Sep 202623 Sep 2026The United States says it is open to speaking with Havana about how it can make a political transition towards new leadership and end a decades-old trade embargo imposed since former leader Fidel Castro‘s communist revolution in 1959 and the US’s recent blockade of the country.
“Cuba has a golden opportunity to place itself on an irreversible path towards a better future,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday in New York City. “We are prepared to be helpful in that regard if they are open to it.”
Washington has previously said that it wants a change in Cuba’s government. Since earlier this year, the US has additionally imposed an oil blockade that has put the country under severe pressure, dealing with fuel shortages and ongoing blackouts. Cuban officials have also blamed it on problems providing food and other basic needs for its population.
Rubio said Washington was willing to work with some Cuban leaders – those whose “hands are not stained with blood”, he said – but also acknowledged that some were “at least publicly quite recalcitrant”.
Rubio, the child of Cubans who fled the country before the revolution, said businesses and investors from the US, including the Cuban diaspora, were ready to step in and help the country transition its economy if progress was made on political reforms.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump called Cuba a “failed state,” and said his administration was willing to use military power against it when necessary, outlining a string of moves it has made in the region to protect Washington’s interests, including the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba,” Trump said. “Where the communist regime is under great pressure, the biggest pressure they’ve ever been under.”
Trump’s remarks prompted the Cuban delegation to walk out of the assembly.
Cuban officials have denied any talks are going on with the US, which has sought to remove the post-revolutionary government in Havana ever since it came to power in 1959.
Earlier this month, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the US embargo against his country a policy of “economic asphyxiation,” and described the blockade as “genocidal”.
The Cuban government says the US embargo cost its economy $8bn between March 2025 and February 2026, the highest figure yet recorded and 7 percent more than in the previous reporting period.
The total does not include some of Washington’s more recent sanctions, including restrictions on the island’s energy supply imposed in January and secondary sanctions imposed in May, said Rodriguez.
Several world leaders at the UNGA criticised the US blockade in their speeches this year, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“In Cuba, the world watches in dismay as 10 million people face collective punishment from an illegal economic embargo and energy siege,” he said on Tuesday.
Every year since 1992, the UNGA has adopted by a large majority a non-binding resolution calling for the lifting of the embargo imposed on Cuba by the US.
In July, a vote on whether to hold a debate on the resolution signalled a slight erosion in support for Cuba in the General Assembly, with 136 member states in favour, nine against, and 30 abstentions – including traditional supporters Germany and Canada.
