The White House has credited Pope Francis with being an important catalyst to the diplomatic thaw between Cuba and the United States.
On Wednesday, President Obama instructed the Secretary of State to immediately initiate discussions with Cuba on the normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba, which includes re-establishing an embassy in Havana.
Wednesday’s news is the result of a year and a half of negotiations between the two countries, personally facilitated by Pope Francis.
In the course of a 15-minute speech, President Obama said: “His Holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Cuba’s president, Raul Castro, urging us to resolve Alan’s case and to address Cuba’s interests in the release of three Cuban agents, who’ve been jailed in the United States for over 15 years.”
According to a White House official, the private letters that the Pope sent to Obama and Castro this past summer “gave us greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward.” The Vatican was the only external government that participated in the negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba. Vatican officials were “in those meetings,” the official said.
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