Fidel Castro tells Obama to stave off nuke war
Source: Agencies |
August 9, 2010, Monday
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A lively and healthy-looking Fidel Castro appealed to US President Barack Obama to stave off global nuclear war in an emphatic address to Cuba's parliament on Saturday that marked his first official government appearance since emergency surgery four years ago.
Castro, who turns 84 in a week, wore olive-green fatigues and arrived on the arm of a subordinate who steadied him as he walked. The approximately 600 lawmakers sprang to their feet and applauded, as the revolutionary stepped to a podium that had been set up for him, grinning broadly and waving.
"Fidel, Fidel, Fidel!" chanted the members of parliament. "Long live Fidel!"
Castro has been warning in written opinion columns for months that the US and Israel will launch a nuclear attack on Iran and that Washington could also target North Korea, predicting Armageddon-like devastation and fighting he expected to have already begun by now.
"Eight weeks ago, I thought that the imminent danger of war didn't have a possible solution. So dramatic was the problem that I didn't see another way out," Castro told the legislature. "I am sure that it won't be like that and, instead ... one man will make the decision alone, the president of the United States."
He added of Obama, "Surely with his multiple worries, he hasn't realized this yet, but his advisers have."
Castro didn't mention domestic Cuban politics or the economy -- instead sticking to the threat of war, the issue for which he convened Saturday's special session of parliament.
Castro's speech lasted barely 11 minutes and was largely devoid of his usual America bashing. He referred to the United States as "the empire" only a few times - though he did say that if Obama didn't intervene he would "be ordering the instantaneous death ... of hundreds of millions of people, among them an incalculable number of inhabitants of his own homeland."
In Washington, there was no immediate response from the White House.
It was Castro's first appearance in parliament or at a government act since shortly before a health crisis in July 2006 that forced him to cede power to his younger brother Raul. He underwent emergency intestinal surgery prompted by an illness whose exact nature has been kept a state secret, and spent years recovering.
Lawmakers have always left an empty chair to the right of Raul. It was in its usual spot Saturday - but Fidel did not sit in it.
Instead, he sat next to parliament head Ricardo Alarcon. The two consulted and cracked jokes during the assembly's one-hour-and-40-minute session.
Asked by one parliamentarian if Obama would be capable of starting a nuclear conflict, Castro replied, "No, not if we persuade him not to."
Castro, who turns 84 in a week, wore olive-green fatigues and arrived on the arm of a subordinate who steadied him as he walked. The approximately 600 lawmakers sprang to their feet and applauded, as the revolutionary stepped to a podium that had been set up for him, grinning broadly and waving.
"Fidel, Fidel, Fidel!" chanted the members of parliament. "Long live Fidel!"
Castro has been warning in written opinion columns for months that the US and Israel will launch a nuclear attack on Iran and that Washington could also target North Korea, predicting Armageddon-like devastation and fighting he expected to have already begun by now.
"Eight weeks ago, I thought that the imminent danger of war didn't have a possible solution. So dramatic was the problem that I didn't see another way out," Castro told the legislature. "I am sure that it won't be like that and, instead ... one man will make the decision alone, the president of the United States."
He added of Obama, "Surely with his multiple worries, he hasn't realized this yet, but his advisers have."
Castro didn't mention domestic Cuban politics or the economy -- instead sticking to the threat of war, the issue for which he convened Saturday's special session of parliament.
Castro's speech lasted barely 11 minutes and was largely devoid of his usual America bashing. He referred to the United States as "the empire" only a few times - though he did say that if Obama didn't intervene he would "be ordering the instantaneous death ... of hundreds of millions of people, among them an incalculable number of inhabitants of his own homeland."
In Washington, there was no immediate response from the White House.
It was Castro's first appearance in parliament or at a government act since shortly before a health crisis in July 2006 that forced him to cede power to his younger brother Raul. He underwent emergency intestinal surgery prompted by an illness whose exact nature has been kept a state secret, and spent years recovering.
Lawmakers have always left an empty chair to the right of Raul. It was in its usual spot Saturday - but Fidel did not sit in it.
Instead, he sat next to parliament head Ricardo Alarcon. The two consulted and cracked jokes during the assembly's one-hour-and-40-minute session.
Asked by one parliamentarian if Obama would be capable of starting a nuclear conflict, Castro replied, "No, not if we persuade him not to."
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