3Novices:Cuba gave U.S. assurances it will not support terrorism in future - U.S. officials

The United States decided to drop Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism on Tuesday partly because of Cuban assurances that it would not support terrorism in the future, senior U.S. officials said. "The assurances that they (provided) were fairly wide-ranging and fairly high-level," said one senior U.S. official who briefed reporters, adding that the Cubans had pledged "that they will no longer support acts of terrorism in the future." The White House on Tuesday said President Barack Obama had decided to remove Cuba from the list, which follows the Dec. 17 U.S. and Cuban joint move to pursue normalizing relations after more than half a century of enmity. "I'm optimistic." The U.S. Congress has 45 days to consider Obama's decision to drop Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list before it takes effect. In theory, once dropped Cuba would no longer be subject to certain sanctions including a ban on U.S. arms exports, controls on "dual-use" items with military and civilian applications, the prohibition of U.S. economic aid and automatic U.S. opposition to international financial institutions making loans to Cuba.

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