Credit: theaustralian.com.au

Cuba's Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces emphasized the island's state of military readiness in a social media post on Monday amid escalating tensions with the United States.

The post, published on the agency's official account, cites a statement by late President Fidel Castro about the willingness to face war "with victory or death" and is accompanied by an image of an armed soldier, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The message also includes a warning that "war should not be provoked, but we will wage it if the enemy imposes it.

The posting was published amid a political and rhetorical confrontation between Havana and Washington and reflects the Cuban government's emphasis on a defensive posture in the face of what it describes as possible external aggression.

Tensions increased after Trump said during a Friday event in West Palm Beach, Fla., that the United States could "take control of Cuba almost immediately." He made those comments before a private audience in which he also mentioned the possibility of deploying military assets near the island.

The escalation comes alongside a new executive order signed by Trump the same day that significantly expands sanctions against Cuba by targeting key sectors such as energy, defense, mining and financial services.

The measure allows sanctions not only against officials on the island, but also against foreigners, companies and banks that operate in those sectors or maintain ties with the Cuban government.

It also introduced secondary sanctions that could affect financial institutions outside the United States. Banks that process transactions deemed "significant" for sanctioned entities could lose access to the U.S. financial system, including accounts on Wall Street or the ability to operate in dollars, according to the executive order.

In practice, this expands the reach of the embargo beyond Cuba by pressuring international companies and investors to avoid commercial ties with the island to avoid exposure to sanctions.

In response, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called Trump's statements a "dangerous and unprecedented escalation" and warned of what he described as an increase in military threats.

"The blockade and its reinforcement cause so much damage because of the intimidating and arrogant conduct of the planet's greatest military power," Díaz-Canel wrote on X.

Hel warned Saturday before delegates from 36 countries in a speech at the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba about "the imminence of a military aggression" by the United States, and he invoked the doctrine of the "War of the Entire People," saying that "each Cuban man and each Cuban woman has a rifle" and an assigned defense position, CiberCuba reported.

The Cuban president said Cuba is not an unusual threat to the United States, and therefore no valid reason exists for a military aggression.

Havana's position also received support from regional allies.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America condemned what it described as threats of the use of force against Cuba and called on the international community to reject them.

The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity denounced Washington's "military threats" and the new sanctions, which it attributed to a tightening of the embargo.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro also said on X that Cuban men and women are the only owners of their country:

"We said the Caribbean is a zone of peace and that must be respected. The American continent will live in peace if no one seeks to impose themselves on others," Petro wrote.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli