Cuba says it is ready to engage with Trump as fuel shortages worsen

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said his government is willing to engage with the Trump administration as the Communist island braces for severe fuel shortages after the U.S. threatened to impose trade sanctions to countries shipping oil to the Communist island.

Díaz-Canel said at a hastily convened news conference on Thursday that any dialogue should come without prior conditions, and as equals, respecting Cuba’s sovereignty. “To surrender isn’t an option for Cuba," he said, framed by an image of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. His rare press conference, which lasted two hours, comes days after the U.S.

identified the Cuban government as an “unusual and extraordinary threat" due to its alliance with Russia, China, and Iran. Since last month’s raid in Venezuela to capture strongman Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has moved to choke off Cuba’s fuel lifeline. Díaz-Canel said Cuba was no danger to the U.S., which he called the biggest threat to the world’s security.

“We aren’t in a state of war," he said. “But we are preparing ourselves in case we have to move to a state of war." In recent weeks, the Trump administration has also been searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the plans. Trump has said his administration is “talking to Cuba," although U.S.

officials haven’t disclosed any details. “It doesn’t have to be a humanitarian crisis," Trump said earlier this week. “I think they probably would come to us and want to make a deal." Cuba has been going through its worst crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union, primarily because of decades of