The United States on Monday signaled that it was softening on what has become an effective oil blockade on Cuba, an about-face after President Trump spent weeks threatening to take over the island and saying he would punish nations that shipped fuel there.
Speaking to reporters, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the United States would evaluate oil shipments to Cuba on a “case-by-case basis.” She was responding to questions about why the U.S. Coast Guard allowed a Russian tanker full of crude to reach Cuba, even though it has been blocking other countries from doing the same.
“It will continue to be made on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons or otherwise, but there’s been no firm change in our sanctions policy,” Ms. Leavitt said.
The Trump administration has blocked energy shipments to Cuba since January as part of a strategy to force the Communist government into submission. Mr. Trump said in a January social media post: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO!”
But when it came to an oil tanker from Russia, Mr. Trump — who has long expressed admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — made an exception. For Russia, Mr. Trump’s decision to let the ship through came as the latest demonstration that it has some leverage over Washington.
Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, said the fuel shipment had been discussed in advance with the United States and that Russia had a duty to support “friends” in Cuba.
The U.S. decision to let the ship through came just days after Mr. Trump eased oil sanctions on Russia and Iran in a bid to contain soaring energy prices prompted by the war with Iran.
Moscow, however, has only continued to challenge Mr. Trump’s global ambitions. In Ukraine, Russia has spurned Mr. Trump’s push for a cease-fire, despite more than a year of negotiations. And in the Middle East, Russia has supplied intelligence showing the locations of U.S. military personnel, American officials have said.
On Sunday night, Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he did not have a problem with Russia sending oil to Cuba, characterizing it as a humanitarian move.
The ban on foreign oil imports has plunged Cuba into a crisis, causing daily blackouts, food shortages and canceled classes, and making it difficult to provide basic health care. Cuba largely relied on Venezuelan and Mexican oil, but shipments stopped in January after U.S. forces captured the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a nighttime raid.
“We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload, because they need — they have to survive. It wouldn’t bother me,” Mr. Trump said on Sunday. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it. Whether it’s Russia or not.”
But the administration did not say definitively on Monday that it approved of nations other than Russia helping Cuba. Just last week, Mr. Trump discussed oil shipments to Cuba with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, according to three officials familiar with the matter.
Mr. Trump told Ms. Sheinbaum he did not want her sending oil to Cuba yet, the officials said. On Monday, Ms. Sheinbaum said her government was continuing to explore restarting oil shipments to Cuba.
Ms. Leavitt on Monday did not directly answer a question of whether the administration was comfortable with Mexico now sending oil to Cuba after allowing the Russian oil tanker through, saying the administration reserved “the right to seize vessels if it’s legally applicable that are headed toward Cuba and that violate the United States sanctions policy.”
“But of course the United States and Cuba also reserve the right to waive those seizures on a case-by-case basis,” she added.
The back-and-forth indicated that the Trump administration would seek to continue to try to squeeze the Cuban government by hindering deliveries, even if some shipments were allowed through.
“The point is about controlling all the levers,” said Ricardo Herrero, the executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a nonpartisan policy and advocacy group in Washington. “The United States decides what goes in, what goes out, when, at what price.”
Dmitry Rozental, the director of the state-sponsored Institute for Latin American Studies in Moscow, said in an interview that the decision to allow a Russian oil delivery to Cuba, but none by Mexico, exhibited Russia’s greater ability to withstand pressure from Mr. Trump.
“It’s much harder for the United States to pressure Russia economically than it is to put pressure on the Sheinbaum government,” Mr. Rozental said.
But in Latin America, the bigger picture for Russia still looks rather bleak. In January, Russia lost its closest South American ally when U.S. forces seized Mr. Maduro.
That move, as well as the de facto blockade, has restrained Russia’s ability to support Cuba’s Communist government, an alliance that has allowed Moscow to project power off American shores since the depths of the Cold War.
In an apparent nod to the Russian tanker approaching Cuba, Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, who once helped lead negotiations with the Obama administration, told Al Jazeera: “Cuba is not alone. We have been receiving support from other countries in order to facilitate and to help us in our plans to look for solutions.”
She said that U.S. and Cuban officials had met once as part of new talks. “We are ready to talk about everything with the United States,” she said. “We are ready to have a negotiation with the United States, to put many things on the table to discuss with the United States. With one exception, and this exception is Cuba’s independence.”
Mr. Trump has said he will have the “honor of taking Cuba,” and in negotiations with Cuban officials his administration has signaled that Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, should resign.
The oil aboard the Russian tanker would provide Cuba only a few weeks’ worth of fuel at most, experts said.
“We’re involved in a major military operation in Iran and we need to have a clear plan for what’s going to happen next in Cuba,” said Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, a former White House director of policy and interagency coordination in Mr. Trump’s first term. Given the war in Iran, “delaying this issue for three or four weeks might not necessarily be a bad thing,” he said.
Jack Nicas contributed reporting from Mexico City.
