Trump threatens to rescind Cuba deal

By Esra Kaymak Avci

WASHINGTON (AA) – Following the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, President-elect Donald Trump threatened Monday to rescind diplomatic relations with Cuba if the island nation does not reform.

"If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal," Trump tweeted.

The message on social media was in sharp contrast to a statement by President Barack Obama after learning of Castro’s death, that suggested the two countries pursue a future based not on differences but on commonality.

Trump initially reacted to Castro’s death by tweeting, "Fidel Castro is dead!". He later said Castro was a "brutal dictator who oppressed his own people” and that the Cuban leader’s legacy was "one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights".

He added Castro's death could change relations between the two countries.

After nearly six decades of discorded relations, the normalization of diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana began in July 2015, when Obama announced he would restore the relations at the diplomatic level by reopening the U.S. embassy in Cuba.

The Cuban embassy was also reopened in Washington DC, followed by an agreement on having commercial flights between two countries and relief of some more economic sanctions.

Trump promised similar claims during his presidential campaign but did not specify how he would do it.