MADRID – The new Cuban ambassador in Spain said on Tuesday that his country needs no “intermediaries” to speak with the United States, having already expressed its willingness to discuss their differences directly on a basis of respect.

Alejandro Gonzalez Galiano gave a press conference on Tuesday at the Cuban Embassy in Madrid.

Gonzalez was serving as Cuba’s deputy foreign minister when President Raul Castro named him in August as the next ambassador to Spain.

Days after a visit to Cuba by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos to consolidate bilateral ties, the ambassador stressed Tuesday the “positive moment” of Spanish-Cuban relations after overcoming “old misunderstandings.”

In that regard, he said that he will make “the greatest effort” to promote their relations in all possible spheres.

Gonzalez said he was not present at Moratinos’ long meeting with Raul Castro, so he said he was unaware that Spain had delivered a message to Cuba from the United States after the Oct. 13 White House meeting between President Barack Obama and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

He said that Cuba is a “victim” of Washington’s 47-year-old economic embargo and that they have already expressed their “willingness to discuss directly” with the United States all of their differences, as long as it is done on the “basis of respect for their sovereignty and independence,” and for that reason there was no need for “intermediaries.”

“We are not disposed to discuss with third parties what is up to Cubans to resolve,” he said.

Nonetheless, he described as “positive” Moratinos’ visit to Cuba and emphasized the “great respect” of the Spanish minister towards the communist government, which showed its appreciation by releasing two political prisoners.

“We appreciate the efforts of the Spanish government in trying to correct or change a position promoted in the European Union by another Spanish government,” Gonzalez Galiano said. “If it can be corrected it would be a historical act of rectification,” he said.

It was at the urging of Spain’s then-prime minister, conservative Jose Maria Aznar, that the EU adopted in 1996 a “common position” toward Cuba which calls on Havana to free political prisoners and undertake democratic reforms as a prerequisite for closer ties with Europe.

In that sense, after saying that his job will be to promote relations with Spain in all possible spheres and that he will make the greatest effort to do so, Gonzalez said that his nation is also interested in having good relations with the EU.

“We already have good bilateral relations with many countries in the EU,” he said, adding that the 27-member European bloc should not subordinate its relations with the island to its ties with the United States.

At the press conference Gonzalez mentioned the report entitled “The Need to Put an End to the Economic, Trade and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States against Cuba,” which will be voted on Wednesday in the U.N. General Assembly.

He also regretted that since Obama arrived in the White House nothing has been done about the embargo, which, he said, “remains intact.”

“He may have changed the method and the rhetoric, but in the end not the policy,” he said.

For Gonzalez the “only possible gesture is for the United States to unconditionally and unilaterally raise the economic, financial and trade blockade against Cuba.” EFE