![\"Vehicles](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023d64c-614.jpg\"\/)
\nVehicles wait in line to refuel at a gas station in Havana<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has said that Washington was negotiating with Havana’s leadership to strike a deal, days after he threatened Cuba’s reeling economy with a virtual oil blockade.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump’s second administration has ratcheted up pressure on the communist-run island nation since the US ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro last month.<\/p>\n
Venezuela was a close ally of Havana and a crucial source for oil exports to Cuba.<\/p>\n
“Cuba is a failing nation. It has been for a long time, but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up,” Mr Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.<\/p>\n
“So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens. I think we’re going to make a deal with Cuba,” he added, giving no indication what such a deal would look like.<\/p>\n
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not confirm the US president’s remarks in a statement released on its website yesterday, but took the opportunity to once again reject that the island is a “threat to the security of the United States”.<\/p>\n
It specifically asserted that Cuba does not “host any foreign military or intelligence bases”, but added that it is willing to “maintain a respectful and reciprocal dialogue,” with the United States.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, Mr Trump signed an executive order threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba.<\/p>\n
The following day, Cubans were queueing in long lines at gas stations in Havana.<\/p>\n
\nVehicles wait in line to refuel at a gas station in Havana<\/p>\n
US chief of mission in Cuba Mike Hammer said that while visiting the Trinidad province in central Cuba over the weekend that he encountered residents who “shouted some insults” at him.<\/p>\n
“I think they belong to a certain party, but I know they do not represent the Cuban people, the ordinary Cubans,” Mr Hammer said in a video posted to X, in reference to the Cuban Communist Party.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a statement on X: “The illegitimate Cuban regime must immediately stop its repressive acts of sending individuals to interfere with the diplomatic work of CDA Hammer and members of the @USembcuba team.”<\/p>\n
“Our diplomats will continue to meet with the Cuban people despite the regime’s failed intimidation,” the agency added.<\/p>\n
‘No more oil’<\/p>\n
Mr Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Miami-born son of Cuban exiles, have made no secret of their desire to bring regime change in Havana.<\/p>\n
After Mr Maduro’s fall, the US president warned Havana to “make a deal soon” or face unspecified consequences.<\/p>\n
“NO MORE OIL OR MONEY FOR CUBA: ZERO!” Mr Trump had stated earlier, claiming Cuba was “ready to fall”.<\/p>\n
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that her administration was planning to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, including “food and other products,” while working on a diplomatic solution to continue sending oil to the island despite Mr Trump’s threatened tariffs.<\/p>\n
“We never discussed with President Trump the issue of oil with Cuba,” Ms Sheinbaum added, after the two leaders had spoken by phone Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump has said that Washington was negotiating with Havana’s leadership to strike a deal, days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-276920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}