Cuban Parliament President Meets French Lawmakers

Cuban Parliament President Meets French Lawmakers Havana, Jul 23. – Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power (Parliament), met in Paris with French lawmakers as part of a working visit to France that ends Saturday.

Alarcon met with Jean Pierre Bel, president of the Socialist group in the Senate, who recalled the recent visit to Cuba of a delegation from the Senate's France-Caribbean Friendship Group, in which he is a member.

During the meeting, also attended by Francois Gautier, foreign affairs adviser to the president, Bel recalled exchanges he held with top leaders of the Cuban government and Party, Granma newspaper reported.

Alarcon also talked with Axel Poniatowski, chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee and vice president of the Union for a Popular Movement.

They discussed the current Cuban situation under the effects of the world crisis and the economic blockade imposed by the US government, as well as other issues.

Poniatowski referred to the unfair imprisonment of the Cuban Five in US jails and Washington's double standard in allowing the presence in the United States of notorious terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles.

Alarcon exhorted the European Union to become independent of the United States and eliminate its "common position" on Cuba, imposed by the government of former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, under pressure by former U.S. President George W. Bush.(Prensa Latina)