Talks between U.S. and Cuban diplomats opened Friday in Washington, exploring the possibility of restoring diplomatic ties between the two countries after five decades of estrangement.

The talks are part of President Barack Obama’s initiative to end the trade embargo against Cuba.

A senior State Department official said Friday’s session will focus solely on opening embassies in Washington and Havana as quickly as possible.

“This is where we roll up our sleeves as diplomats and sit down at the table and make sure that we hammer all of the details out to get embassies up and running the way we have embassies all over the world,” the official told reporters.

The official said progress depends in part on what the Cubans bring to the table.

Cuba has said it is linking the embassy issue to whether the U.S. drops it from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The official said the U.S. delegation is not linking the two issues and that the review of the terrorism list is a separate, ongoing process.

The State Department official said the Cubans should feel comfortable that the matter is under review. “It would be very easy to restore diplomatic relations if they would not link those two things.”

The official also said a human rights dialogue will be the first open conversation the U.S. will have with the Cubans as soon as diplomatic ties are restarted.

Last month in Havana, the U.S. and Cuba began a series of meetings to re-establish ties.

The U.S. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in 1960 and closed its embassy one year later after communist leader Fidel Castro overthrew the U.S.-backed government. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance