Fight over Cuba to dominate OAS meeting (returning Cuba as a member) - AP

Hopefully, this will push the U.S. into lifting the embargo and restoring full diplomatic relations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090531/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_americas_cuba_3

WASHINGTON – A fight over Cuba's possible readmission into the Organization of American States is set to dominate the group's meeting this week in Honduras and may put Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an uncomfortable position.

With numerous Latin American countries pushing to reverse the 1962 expulsion of the communist island nation from the bloc, the Obama administration's willingness to engage with Cuba will be tested at the session that Clinton plans to attend on Tuesday.

Diplomats at OAS headquarters in Washington have been trying frantically to forge a compromise ahead of the meeting. Nicaragua has threatened to press for a vote on its proposal.

This could put the U.S. on the spot because although the OAS generally operates by consensus, a two-thirds majority vote, or 23 countries, is all that is needed for a resolution to pass. OAS sources say they believe that threshold can easily be met.

One senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations would not rule out the possibility that Clinton might decide to cancel her attendance at the OAS meeting if a compromise acceptable to the United States was not reached. But he said he was hopeful that one could be achieved.

It will be pretty awkward if Clinton decides to cancel. What a mess State has made of the whole thing.

For the life of me, I can't see a connection.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x15741

I think someone at State is trying to finish off the OAS. The poor thing has been in its death throes for way too long.

If they really are concerned about Cuba, how does introducing Israel help when relations are already strained between Israel and Venezuela, maybe Bolivia and Nicaragua?

Foreign Policy as the Theater of the Absurd.:crazy: