The Cuban government rejected the Sept. 11 acts of terrorism in the United States and immediately offered its condolences to the people and authorities of this country for the loss of life.
According to the on-line edition of the Cuban newspaper Granma, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that Cuba’s historical position is to “totally condemn and reject terrorism wherever it comes from and against whomever it is perpetrated.”
The Cuban minister made his statement in Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport a few hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
“Our people have had to suffer 40 years of acts of terrorism, so we know the consequences of this type of action,” emphasized Perez Roque.
The Cuban minister of foreign affairs stated that the island has notified regional air traffic control authorities that the island is willing to offer facilities in Cuban airports for aircraft in mid-flight, due to the present situation in U.S. airspace
“Our reaction really is one of a feeling of total rejection of this action,” he reiterated.
Asked about those acts of terrorism being attributed to Palestinian terrorists, the foreign minister indicated that Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian National Authority, was one of the first to expressly condemn what occurred today.
Regarding a notion that Cuba was involved, he confirmed: “I do not believe it is necessary to refer to this, and I trust that such a barbaric idea would not occur to anybody.”
After the news became known on the island, normal television transmissions were interrupted and full and detailed information was offered on the incident, which was described as “a national tragedy for the United States.”
