According to USA Today, Cuban officials met with the top U.S. diplomat on the island Tuesday to make it known the country is against the extra screenings of Cuban citizens flying to the States, NPR reports.
Cuba has been on the U.S. watch list of terrorist sponsor nations since the 1980s, "but has always maintained its inclusion had more to do with the United States' antagonistic policy toward the communist-governed nation than with evidence that it sponsors terrorism," NPR writes.
"The arguments the U.S. uses to keep Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism are totally unfounded," Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American affairs office, told the AP. "Everyone knows they are politically motivated and only designed to justify the blockade against Cuba."
Once Jonathan Farrar, head of the U.S. Interests Section, relayed Cuba's message to the U.S., State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Cuba's inclusion on the list wasn't without reason. Cuban citizens flying into the U.S. from any country, will be subject to the extra screening rules, according to the report.