US issues new Cuba-related sanctions

The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on three leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and nine Cuban entities.

The sanctions target ICAP President Fernando Gonzalez Llort, First Vice President Noemi Ramona Rabaza Fernandez and North America Director Leima Martinez Freire, according to the US Treasury and State agencies.

It also sanctioned the Ministry of Construction and several state-owned entities operating in the metals, mining, trade and labor sectors, including Empresa de Niquel Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara and MetalCuba.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the measures were aimed at countering Havana's efforts to fund repression and conduct "subversive anti-American activities."

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also added 10 individuals to its Iran-linked sanctions list.

Earlier Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington will impose the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran as part of the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.”

“The economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world,” Bessent told the CNBC business news outlet.

He said Washington would tell countries they are “either with us or against us.”