That’s the way it (embar)goes.
Once again, for the 24th consecutive year, the United Nations will be taking its annual vote on Cuba’s resolution demanding an end to the U.S. trade embargo. And once again, on Oct. 27th, the General Assembly vote will be embarrassingly one-sided in support. Last year it was 188-2. The U.S. and Israel were, again, the duo of dissent. And there were three familiar abstentions: Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. So, 188-2-3. How’s that for credibility and clout?
This year, however, there is speculation that the U.S. may change that dissent to an abstention. This would be in keeping with the Obama Administration’s rapprochement with Cuba–and its stated desire for Congress to end the counterproductive, 54-year-old embargo.
This would also be weird.
It’s unheard of for a UN member state not to oppose resolutions critical of its own laws. But that’s what having a Cold War relic of a policy still in force yields. Talk about embarrassing.