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Cuban effort displays Obama’s audacity as his presidency winds down

WASHINGTON — The thaw in United States-Cuba relations is the most striking example of US President Barack Obama asserting his power to check off the bucket list from his 2008 campaign and shake off the hesitancy that has characterised much of his first six years in office.

In a handout photo, President Barack Obama speaks on the phone with President Raul Castro of Cuba, one day before the announcement of restored diplomatic relations, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Dec. 16, 2014. Photo: The White House

In a handout photo, President Barack Obama speaks on the phone with President Raul Castro of Cuba, one day before the announcement of restored diplomatic relations, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Dec. 16, 2014. Photo: The White House

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WASHINGTON — The thaw in United States-Cuba relations is the most striking example of US President Barack Obama asserting his power to check off the bucket list from his 2008 campaign and shake off the hesitancy that has characterised much of his first six years in office.

Wednesday’s announcement made in a speech to the nation from the Cabinet Room of the White House followed similar decisions by Mr Obama in recent weeks to defy Republicans on immigration, climate change policy and negotiations with Iran. Gone are the cautious political calculations that had consigned contentious issues to secondary status and led some of the President’s strongest allies to accuse him of abandoning his principles.

“He’s going down a checklist of thorny, long-standing problems and he’s doing whatever he can to tackle them,” said Mr David Axelrod, a former senior adviser. “My sense is his feeling is, ‘I’m not going to leave office without doing everything I can to stop them.’”

As a candidate in 2008, Mr Obama was scorned by his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, for his pledge to meet Cuban President Raul Castro. Then, Mr Obama said that if Cuba took steps towards democracy and released all political prisoners, “we will take steps to begin normalising relations”.

But for six years after being elected, Mr Obama made little progress on an issue fraught with political passions and uncertainty. Cuba’s five-year detention of US government subcontractor Alan Gross on espionage charges was also a persistent roadblock.

On Wednesday, Mr Obama finally made good on his pledge.

“When I came into office, I promised to re-examine our Cuba policy,” the President said. “I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result.”

Mr Gross was released on Wednesday as part of a deal to normalise diplomatic ties that also includes a prisoner swap.

In taking unilateral action on Cuba, Mr Obama ventured into diplomatic territory where the previous 10 Presidents refused to go, and Republicans, along with a senior Democrat, quickly characterised the rapprochement with the Castro family as an appeasement of the hemisphere’s leading dictatorship. Republican lawmakers, who will take control of the Senate as well as the House next month, made clear that they would resist lifting the 54-year-old trade embargo.

Analysts said the move was part of a pattern that would define the end of Mr Obama’s presidency. Frustrated by congressional inaction and Republican efforts to block legislation, the President has increasingly pushed the limits of his executive authority in domestic and international policymaking.

With the US in ongoing nuclear discussions with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, there are now questions about whether renewed US relations with Iran could be next on the agenda.

Fuelling the speculation are remarks to reporters by a senior administration official who compared the Cuban talks to those made by US and Iranian officials last year, The Christian Science Monitor reported. That effort had led to a “joint plan of action” on Iran’s nuclear programme and an unprecedented increase in diplomatic contact between the US and Iran. Agencies

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