cuban high 5 in UN

for the 15th straight year the UN general assembly wednesday passed a nonbinding resolution against the 44-year-old US embargo of cuba. the vote was 183-4-1. only the US, israel, marshall islands, and palau voted no, and micronesia abstained. the last three were all formerly administered by the US under UN trusteeship and still have major economic ties to us, as does israel.

the assembly also tabled an australian amendment calling on cuba to stop repressing dissent. only 51 nations wanted to vote on it.

the main objection to the amendment seemed to be that it would tie the issues together to make ending the embargo appear to depend on cuban human rights compliance. that tie would imply support for the embargo.

so i would think australia ought to resubmit the amendment as a separate resolution.

or don't things work that way?