DHAKA: Cuban President Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama sparred over human rights issues including the American prison at Guantanamo Bay and Cuba’s political prisoners.

At a historic news conference, Castro said if he was given a list of political prisoners, he would “release them tonight”, reports the BBC.

The White House has said it has given Cuba lists of dissidents in the past.

Castro does not view the prisoners as dissidents, US officials said.

That disagreement is central to the conflict between US and Cuban officials.

More needs to be done to lift the US embargo on trade with Cuba, Castro said, adding that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp must close.

Barack Obama, the first serving US president to visit Cuba since 1959, said the trade embargo would be fully lifted.

“Cuba’s destiny will not be decided by the United States or any other nation... The future of Cuba will be decided by Cubans not by anybody else,” Obama said.

Earlier on Monday, Castro defended Cuba’s record on human rights and pointed to problems in the US.

“We defend human rights, in our view civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are indivisible, inter-dependent and universal,” Castro said.

“Actually we find it inconceivable that a government does not defend and ensure the right to healthcare, education, social security, food provision and development,” he said.

Speaking to ABC News after the conference with Castro, Obama did not directly say he would be giving Castro a list of political prisoners.

“We have given them lists in the past and they have responded intermittently to our engagement,” he said.

“And this I think is an example of why it was my belief that this would be a more successful mechanism for us to advance the values that we care about than an embargo and silence and no communications.”

BDST: 1030 HRS, MAR 22, 2016
SR