Cuba rejects Libya’s NTC

diplomats, the Cuban foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“Cuba does not recognise the National Transitional Council or any provisional authority and will only give recognition to a government without foreign intervention, by the free, sovereign and sole will of the brotherly Libyan people,” said the ministry in a statement.
The statement said Cuba has withdrawn its ambassador and first secretary in Tripoli, who “have taken risks and accompanied the Libyan people in this tragic situation,” adding Cuban diplomats “have witnessed the bombing of NATO against civilian targets and the killing of innocent civilians.”
Libya has suffered a bloody civil war between rebels demanding the departure of leader Muammar Gaddafi and the troops loyal to him since February.
Cuba said the NATO-led military intervention against Libya has only sharpened the conflict and “prevented the Libyan people from moving towards a negotiated and peaceful solution.”
Cuba also accused NATO of killing thousands of people with the “vulgar excuse” of civilian protection, and of “ignoring the constructive initiatives of the African Union and other countries.”
The statement also criticised NATO’s plans to promote a similar intervention in Syria and urged the international community to “prevent a new war, and support the right of the Syrian people to its full independence and self-determination.”
Meanwhile, Cuban Defence Minister General Julio Casas Regueiro, the right-hand man of President Raul Castro, died of a heart attack in Havana on Saturday.
He was 75.
Casas Regueiro, one of Cuba’s most powerful men is replaced under national regulations by his first deputy, General Leopoldo Cita Frias.
The defence chief – who succeeded Raul Castro as head of the armed forces in 2008 when he became president – fell “victim to cardiac arrest”, and his body was cremated according to his wishes, the Communist Party politburo said in a statement read out on state television news.
“He was known for his loyalty to the Party, to the people, to the Revolution, and to his commander-in-chief Raul Castro.
“He made numerous contributions to strengthening (Cuba’s) defence,” the statement added.
A memorial for the defence chief, who also served as a vice president of Cuba’s Council of State, was held on Saturday in Havana.
His ashes were then to be sent to a mausoleum in the Sierra Maestra mountain range in eastern Cuba for a ceremony with military honours, officials said. Casas Regueiro was one of Cuba’s five vice presidents, and had served on the Communist Party’s policymaking politburo since 1991.
The armed forces were and are a critical pillar of Cuba’s regime stability.
The late defence chief was a close collaborator and trusted ally of Raul Castro for decades.
From before the 1959 Revolution – he joined Raul’s rebel unit at age 22 – through the Cold War era and after its collapse, Casas Regueiro backed up Raul.
He formally rose to the helm of the armed forces when Raul Castro assumed the presidency from his brother, revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, on February 24, 2008. – Xinhua-AFP.