**Cuba’s leaders do not want to normalise ties with the US because then they would lose their excuse for the state of the country, says Hillary Clinton.**Cuba’s response to recent US efforts to improve relations had revealed “an intransigent, entrenched regime” in Havana, said the US secretary of state.
The Cuban authorities have long blamed a 48-year US trade embargo for holding back the country’s development.
The US says the embargo will remain until Cuba improves human rights.
Relations between Washington and the communist government in Havana have soured in recent months after early expectations of an improvement under the Obama administration.
‘Very sad’
Mrs Clinton said the response of Cuban President Raul Castro and his brother, ex-leader Fidel Castro, to US efforts to improve ties proved they had no interest in political reform or ending the sanctions.
“It is my personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do no want to see normalisation with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn’t happened in Cuba in the last 50 years,” she said.
“I find that very sad, because there should be an opportunity for a transition to a full democracy in Cuba and it’s going to happen at some point, but it may not happen any time soon.”
Earlier this month, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez held a meeting with Cheryl Mills, Mrs Clinton’s chief-of-staff, in one of the highest level contacts between the two countries for years.
US officials said the two “did not agree on very much” at the talks, which were held in New York on the sidelines of a UN forum on aid for quake-hit Haiti.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.