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Cuban ex-President, Fidel Castro has said his brother,
Raul, introduced himself to US President Barack Obama in English at the
funeral for former South African President Nelson Mandela, telling him,
"Mr. President, I am Castro".
Several media which include Aljazeera reported that in an interview about Mandela in
Cuban state media on Thursday, Castro congratulated his brother, who took
over as president of Cuba in 2008, for his "steadfastness and dignity,
when, with a friendly but firm gesture, he greeted the head of the US government
and told him in English, 'Mr. President, I am Castro'".
Raul Castro and Obama shook hands at
Mandela's funeral on December 10, setting off speculation about whether it
signaled a warming of ties between the two nations after decades of animosity.
The US and Cuba downplayed the
handshake, saying it was unplanned and went no further than pleasantries.
But the meeting had resonance
because relations between the two countries have recently warmed.
Last month in Miami, Obama said that
it may be time for the US to revise its policies towards Cuba, against
which it has had a trade embargo for more than 50 years.
Obama questioned whether the policy
that was put in place in 1961 remains an effective way of dealing with
Washington's differences with the communist-ruled island nation.
Fidel Castro, 87, underwent an
operation for intestinal bleeding in 2006 and never fully recovered. He handed
over presidential powers to his younger brother, Raul, in 2008
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