Jesse Jackson: No More Wall between Cuba, USA

Doha, May 11. -The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday termed the U.S. economic blockade on Cuba as outdated and obsolete, and said he hoped for the restoration of relations between two nations that mutually need each other.

"If we (the U.S. government) have been able to talk to, understand, and establish relations with China, which has an ideology different from ours, then it is an outdated idea not to do so with Cuba," the renowned U.S. civil rights activist said.

In an interview with Prensa Latina in the capital of Qatar, where he was attending the 11th Doha Forum, Jackson stated that Cuba is a sovereign State, a full member of the UN General Assembly — which has condemned Washingtonâ�Ös policy — and a full member of the international community.

Asked whether his government and European ones are acting transparently toward Arab countries shaken by revolutionary uprisings, he said he was "optimistic" that "the mass movement for freedom knows what it needs to do."

Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH human rights coalition, said people should not forget that the West supported the former authoritarian regimes, and that the progressive forces of the world "have to be on the side of people who want democracy, justice and freedom."

The fundamental reforms in the Arab world "have to be progressive, inclusive and transparent," and Western powers should act accordingly, he said. (Prensa Latina)