CUBA has sharply rebuked a US State Department report that once again designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, calling it absurd and manipulative.

The annual Country Reports on Terrorism issued late on Wednesday continued to group Cuba with Iran, Sudan and Syria as countries that it claims have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” 

Cuba has been on the US list since 1982.

The designation carries with it economic sanctions beyond those in the US trade embargo of Cuba.

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry responded that it “energetically rejects the manipulation of a matter as sensitive as international terrorism by turning it into an instrument of policy against Cuba and it demands that our country be definitively excluded from this spurious, unilateral and arbitrary list.”

Opponents of Washington’s cold war-era policy on Cuba had hoped it would drop Cuba from the list this year.

“Many of the reasons for keeping Cuba on the list are no longer valid,” said Alana Tummino, director of policy at the Council of the Americas.

“Sadly, unless the State Department has more evidence than it’s providing, it appears that political motivations have once again driven this determination.” 

The report admitted that there was no indication that the Cuban government was aiding any terrorist group, but claimed that it continued to harbour fugitives from US courts.

Cuba countered that some fugitives had been dealt with by the Cuban legal system, some had decided to live in Cuba after completing their sentences and that none of them had been accused of terrorism.

“Even so, political considerations and the need to justify the embargo at all costs … have won out over rationality yet again,” Cuba said.

Meanwhile, a former Black Panther who returned to the US nearly 30 years after he hijacked a plane to Cuba, pleaded guilty to kidnapping to avoid a more serious charge of air piracy.

William Potts arrived in the US in November to face federal charges after serving 13 years in a Cuban prison.

Mr Potts said he had thought he would be welcomed in Cuba, but was instead put on trial and convicted.