by Kevin Killough
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said Monday that his country has no “aggressive plans or intentions” to attack any country including the United States – following a news report that the Communist-run island nation has acquired over 300 drones with possible plans to use them to attack American military vessels, the U.S. military base at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, and possibly Key West, Florida.
According to Axios, which based its report on classified intelligence that was shared by a U.S. official, the findings could become a pretext for U.S. military action against Cuba.
The official said that the proximity of the island to the U.S. – combined with the technology coming from terror groups, Iran, Russia and drug cartels — makes the drones especially concerning.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as the island nation grapples with a collapse of its energy sector, in large part because it has run out of oil.
Cuba said the meeting was held at the request of the United States government and that officials emphasized in the meeting that Cuba does not pose a “threat to the national security of the U.S.”
After the Axios report, Díaz-Canel Bermúdez posted on X that his country “poses no threat” to the United States and doesn’t have “aggressive plans or intentions against any country.”
“The threat itself already constitutes an international crime. If it were to materialize, it would trigger a bloodbath with incalculable consequences, plus the destructive impact on regional peace and stability,” the Cuban president said.
“Cuba poses no threat, nor does it have aggressive plans or intentions against any country. It has none against the U.S., nor has it ever had any—something the government of that nation knows full well, particularly its defense and national security agencies,” he added.
The Cuban president didn’t specifically mention the reported drones, but rather, criticized what he described as “threats of military aggression against Cuba from the world’s greatest power” and defended Cuba’s “absolute and legitimate right to defend itself against a military onslaught.”
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Kevin Killough is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez” by Duma.gov.ru. CC BY 4.0.
