Biden announces plans to remove Cuba from...

Washington (CNN) — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it will remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list – a move taken in the twilight of the administration that is likely to be reversed by the incoming team.

President Joe Biden will notify Congress on Tuesday of his intent to lift the designation, a senior administration official said, noting that an “assessment has been completed, and we do not have information that supports Cuba’s designation.”

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism in January 2021 – just days before leaving office – saying at the time that Havana was “providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists” after refusing to extradite leaders of a Colombian guerrilla organization who were in Havana for peace talks when a deadly bombing took place in the South American nation. Pompeo accused the nation of reneging on its commitments made when President Barack Obama took them off the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2015.

Cuba has been one of just four nations designated as state sponsors of terrorism, along with North Korea, Iran and Syria.

Throughout the Biden administration, Cuban officials have advocated for their country’s removal as a state sponsor of terror, which triggers stringent economic sanctions in addition to more than the six decades old US embargo. In December, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel alongside former Cuban leader Raúl Castro led a march of thousands of Cubans in front of the US Embassy in Havana, calling for the removal of Cuba from the so-called terror list.

Tuesday’s move to lift the designation was part of a multi-pronged announcement that also included a waiver of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, also known as the Libertad Act. The Trump administration in 2019 allowed the full implementation of this part of the act, which allowed US nationals to sue for damages over private property seized during the Cuban revolution. The move on Tuesday once again prevents US nationals from doing so.

Senior administration officials also said Biden was rescinding another Trump-era memorandum that established “the so-called restricted list, which is a list of entities that form the base of certain entities in Cuba that are subject to certain prohibited financial transactions.”

“Concurrently to these unilateral steps that are being taken by the United States, it is our understanding that the Catholic Church is significantly advancing an agreement with Cuba to undertake a set of actions that will allow for the humanitarian release of a significant number of political prisoners in Cuba and those who have been detained unjustly,” a senior administration official said.

Another senior administration official said they expect the moves “will be broadly well-received in the region and beyond.”

This official said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “asked President Biden directly to remove Cuba from the list” and that the Colombian government sent the US a diplomatic note describing Cuba’s help “to facilitate peace negotiations and requested Cuba be removed from the state sponsors of terrorism designation.”

“Other allies, including the EU, Spain, Canada, Colombia, Chile and many others have asked for Cuba to be removed from the list, and so we view this as an opportune moment to do so, given the important dialogue that is taking place between Cuba and the Catholic Church with respect to political prisoners,” they explained.

Still, the moves are not likely to last. President-elect Donald Trump has filled his team with officials hawkish on Cuba, including Sen. Marco Rubio, his pick for secretary of state. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has long backed punitive measures against the island’s government.

“There is, under the procedures that govern, particularly the state sponsor of terrorism designation, an opportunity for Congress to review this,” the first official said.

“With respect to the incoming administration, certainly, they will have an opportunity to review this position as well. However, they will be working off the same basis of information as the current administration has in terms of evaluating whether Cuba meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism,” they said.

Asked about coordination with the incoming administration, the official said “the transition teams of the respective administrations of the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration have been in regular communication on a range of issues, and in this issue is among the issues on which they’ve been in communication.”

While criticizing the US economic sanctions that remain the Cuban Foreign Ministry on Tuesday in a statement said of the change to Cuba’s terror list designation, “This decision puts an end to specific coercive measures which, together with many others, seriously damage the Cuban economy and have a severe impact on the population. “

In a separate statement, the Foreign Ministry announced Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel had written to Pope Francis in January that 553 prisoners would be released from Cuban jails. The Vatican had previously advocated for the release of political prisoners in Cuba, including those who took place in the island-wide July 11, 2021 protests. It was not clear though from the statement which prisoners would be set free or when. The statement said the prisoners would be released “gradually.”