Boehner: Removal of Cuba from State Terrorism List Gives Castro Regime 'Political Win in Return for Nothing'

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Speaker of the House John Boehner ripped the Obama administration on Friday, saying that by taking Cuba off of the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror, it had “handed the Castro regime a significant political win in return for nothing.”

Boehner says the Cuban regime “has offered no assurances it will address its long record of repression and human rights abuses at home” and has failed to indicate that “it will cease its support for violence throughout the region.” Boehner has previously made clear that he is against normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, a move President Obama announced late last year.

“Removing the regime from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror is just the latest example of this administration focusing more on befriending our enemies than helping our allies.”

“Fortunately,” Boehner added, “it will have little practical effect. Most U.S. sanctions on the Cuban regime are contained in other laws — laws the U.S. House will ensure remain in place as we work to protect those fighting for freedom, and in many cases, simply their own survival.”

The administration announced the removal of Cuba from the state sponsor of terror list on Friday, months after Obama announced the two nations would discuss normalizing relations. Earlier this week, the two nations announced that embassies would re-open in Havana and Washington, D.C. for the first time in more than 50 years.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest downplayed Boehner’s concern, saying that “there continue to be issues that need to be worked out,” but that recent discussion have seen “important progress.”

“Ultimately,” Earnest said at a Friday press briefing, “what we think all of that will do is empower the Cuban people, that is the ultimate goal of this policy change, and there is no question that the deeper engagement will empower Cuban people and put additional pressure on Cuban government to do a better job on human rights.”