Iran has supported the embattled Assad regime since 2013 by sending military officials to the region.
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A United States official confirmed on Wednesday, that paramilitary and special forces units from Cuba were indeed on the ground in Syria, according to intelligence reports. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated Cuban troops could have been training in Russia and should have arrived in Syria on Russian planes. USA were reportedly not expecting Cuban soldiers to become active in Syria.
“This is a historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the Cuban government and people, and begin a new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas,”President Obama said during a Rose Garden speech after the controversial decision in July”.
Up to 300 troops, led by General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, the head of Cuba’s armed forces, arrived in Syria this week, according to the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami.
Visiting Bulgaria, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China supported global anti-terror operations that were in line with worldwide law and had the support of the countries involved. After the executive order was issued, America and Cuba had not engaged in diplomatic relations since 1961. The U.S. Embassy in Havana reopened in July 2015. “It hasn’t worked for 50 years”.
“The Cuban military contingent will be primarily deployed in Syria manning Russian tanks provided to Assad by the Russians”, the institute said in a statement.
Cuba has entered Syria’s conflict alongside Russian and Syrian regime forces, a US-based monitoring group has said, making it the latest state to become embroiled in the proxy war dividing the world along old Cold War lines.
The analysis also reveals that this alliance is in fact an old one, and its reputation precedes it: in the 1970s Fidel Castro sent “several hundred thousand troops to Angola and other African countries, while the Soviets provided weapons to support African leaders attempting to gain power in their countries”.
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In 1973, Cuba sent troops to Syria to aid in the Yom Kippur war against Israel.
