WASHINGTON ¨C President Barack Obama told Congress on Tuesday he intends to remove Cuba from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, clearing the way for restoring diplomatic relations and reopening embassies shut for more than half a century.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro sat down at a Western Hemisphere summit in Panama on Saturday for the first meeting of its kind between U.S. and Cuban leaders in nearly 60 years.
Cuba¡¯s communist government had flatly demanded removal from the U.S. blacklist as a condition for normal relations between the two former Cold War foes. Obama ordered a review of Cuba¡¯s status after he and Castro announced a diplomatic breakthrough on Dec. 17.
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