Montevideo, (Mesa Américas) September 29 (RHC-Sputnik)-- French foreign policy expert Janette Habel said that “the eventual pull out of most U.S. diplomats from the country's embassy in Cuba, following presumed 'sonic attacks' that caused health problems to some of them could be used by U.S. President Donald Trump to begin the process to break relations with the Caribbean state.”
In statements to Russia's Sputnik, Habel, an expert in Cuban issues, stated that the threat of diplomatic rupture is 'real.' She insisted that the incident could serve as an ideal pretext for Trump to justify breaking relations with Havana without being forced to provide any further political or diplomatic explanation.
The U.S. State Department said the presumed 'sonic attacks' against U.S. and Canadian diplomats and their relatives in Cuba took place in 2016, causing some 20 U.S. diplomats different hearing or cerebral problems. The Cuban Foreign Ministry has categorically rejected Cuba's involvement.
Habel, an expert with the Institute of Higher Studies on Latin America at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, further noticed that there is absolutely no evidence to prove any wrongdoing on the part of Havana.
She said: “There is nothing clear about these 'attacks.' What is crystal clear, though, and U.S. authorities have themselves confirmed it is that the Cuban government had NO responsibility whatsoever in whatever happened. We they need to find out is who would actually benefit from all this. It is obvious that President Trump would benefit greatly.”
In that sense, Habel explained that some hypothesis are being analyzed, including problems with certain U.S. technology at the embassy or that it could be the action of some sectors opposed to the normalization of relations between the two countries, particularly some sectors of Cuban-Americans in Florida.
The French foreign policy expert insisted that it would absurd to even think that the Cuban government is behind the 'attacks,' arguing that the Caribbean state has no interest whatsoever in taking any initiative that would hamper the process towards full normalized relations with the U.S., begun in 2014 by Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, and which led to the opening of embassies in both Washington and Havana.