US President Barack Obama and Cuba’s Raul Castro will have a historic face-to-face encounter at the Summit of the Americas this week, breaking the ice after decades of glacial relations. While the meeting will mark a major milestone — no Cuban leader has attended a Summit of the Americas — the two sides have yet to reopen embassies and lingering differences have been evident at negotiations that started in January. A major sticking point has been Cuba’s inclusion on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The White House indicated his week that the State Department was in the “final stages” of deciding whether to recommend Havana’s removal from the list, and that Congress would then have 45 days to decide whether to override the decision.
