UN calls for end to US embargo on Cuba

The UN General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to call for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

The vote was cast at the 192-member General Assembly with 187 in favour, three against and two abstentions. This is the 18th year that the General Assembly voted to urge an end to the U.S. embargo.

Only the United States, Israel and Palau voted against the non- binding resolution, while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.

Over 17 consecutive years since 1992, a majority in the United Nations General Assembly have supported lifting the unilateral U.S. embargo.

The United States imposed the trade embargo on Cuba in early 1960s when both countries severed diplomatic ties. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, while taking the floor at the General Assembly, said that U.S. embargo was "an absurd policy that causes scarcities and sufferings."

"It is a crass, flagrant and systematic violations of human rights," the foreign minister said. United Nations, (Xinhua) -