Review of Cuba’s terror listing complete

The State Department has completed its review of Cuba’s listing as a state sponsor of terror, President Obama said Thursday.

{mosads}Obama said no final decision has been made on whether to remove Cuba from the list. The State Department’s review was sent to the White House, where it will undergo a separate interagency review before being presented to the president.

“That review has been completed,” Obama said of the State Department’s evaluation, according to a pool report. But a formal recommendation to him “hasn’t happened yet.”

The president did not reveal what the agency’s recommendation was.

“I won’t make a formal announcement today about what those recommendations are until I have them,” he said.

Obama spoke following a meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. Later on Thursday, he will depart Jamaica for Panama to attend the Summit of the Americas, where he is expected to meet with Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

CNN reported Wednesday that the State Department has formally recommended Cuba be removed from the list of state sponsors of terror. In order to be removed from the list, the U.S. government would have to demonstrate Cuba has not provided aid to terror groups in the last six months.

The move would clear the way for the U.S. and Cuba to reopen long-closed embassies, a significant step in restoring formal ties between the two countries.

Obama ordered the State Department to review Cuba’s terror listing in December, when he announced he would seek to normalize relations with the island nation.

Even though Cuba’s terror listing is seen as a sticking point in the normalization process, Obama said he was satisfied with the progress.

“They are proceeding as I expected,” Obama said. “I never foresaw that immediately, overnight, Cuba would transform.”

The president said he expected he would be able to move toward opening embassies and that other concrete steps toward normalization would occur during the final two years of his presidency.

U.S. and Cuban officials have met three times since last December, when Obama announced he would re-open relations with Cuba.

–This report was updated at 1:11 p.m.