HAVANA, May 17 (Reuters) – Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the U.S. on Sunday of fabricating a “fraudulent case” to justify economic sanctions and potential military intervention.
The minister’s comments followed a report by Axios on Sunday, citing classified intelligence, which said that Cuba had acquired more than 300 military drones.
“Cuba neither threatens nor desires war,” Rodriguez said in a post on social media, adding that the country “prepares itself to confront external aggression in the exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense recognized by the UN Charter.”
The report alleged that Havana had discussed plans to use them to attack the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. military vessels and Key West, Florida.
Rodriguez did not explicitly mention the drone allegations in his statement.
The intelligence — which could become a pretext for U.S. military action — shows the degree to which the Trump administration sees Cuba as a threat because of developments in drone warfare and the presence of Iranian military advisers in Havana, a senior U.S. official told the publication.
Reuters could not immediately verify the Axios report.
(Reporting by Ruchika Khanna in Bengaluru and Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Mark Porter)
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