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The Cuban ambassador to the UN, Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, described the Israeli representative as "brazen" during the final day of the General Assembly debate on the U.S. embargo against Cuba, held on Friday.
In the confrontational and accusatory tone that has characterized Cuban foreign policy in response to criticism, Soberón exercised the right of reply to the Israeli delegation after it made accusations against Havana during the debate titled "The Need to End the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States Against Cuba."
"It is at least shameless that the representative of Israel, whose government is facing unprecedented rejection from the international community for genocide and grave violations of International Law and International Humanitarian Law against the Palestinian people, intends to position himself as a critic of Cuba," the diplomat stated.
Soberón demanded that Israel be accountable for its own actions before pointing fingers at others: "Instead of pretending to give lessons, the genocidal state of Israel should, above all, answer for the devastation, suffering, and death that its actions have caused in Palestine and other Arab territories."
Soberón also accused the Israeli delegation of acting as a conduit for Washington: “While the world watches in horror the systematic destruction of cities, hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, the Israeli delegation repeats, without a shred of morality, a script written in Washington to justify the economic strangulation of my country.”
The diplomat went further in referring to the relationship between Israel and the United States: "Their cynicism, like that of their master, seems to know no bounds." This speech has been highlighted by the Cuban state media
Soberón noted that two other delegations also delivered speeches with "guidelines prepared in Washington," although he preferred not to mention them explicitly "out of basic decorum."
The urgent debate was approved on July 7 with 136 votes in favor, nine against, and 30 abstentions, under an extraordinary mechanism that Cuba used for the first time, different from the annual vote in October.
Israel was one of the nine countries that voted against opening the debate, alongside the United States, Argentina, Costa Rica, Morocco, the Czech Republic, North Macedonia, Paraguay, and Ukraine.
The 30 abstentions recorded in this session represent a significant deterioration in international support for Cuba compared to previous years: in the October 2025 annual vote, the regime received 165 votes in favor and only 12 abstentions, a figure that was already the lowest level of support in over three decades.
During the same debate, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz responded to the Cuban regime with a straightforward statement: "The real blockade is the one that the Cuban regime imposes on its own people."
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signed a diplomatic cable in early July to pressure allied governments and prevent them from supporting the opening of the debate, according to a report by the U.S. to the Cuban regime face to face.
Soberón concluded his statement with a warning: "We will never accept that those who attempt to justify the massacre against the Palestinian people also seek to legitimize a policy of collective punishment against the Cuban people. Our voice will not be silenced by those who seek to replace International Law with force, impunity, and double standards."
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