U.N. Votes, 157-2, in Nonbinding Referendum
       Against U.S. Embargo of Cuba
 

          By YOUSSEF M. IBRAHIM

               UNITED NATIONS -- In a General Assembly vote a record 157
               countries Wednesday favored an end to the U.S. economic
          embargo of Cuba.

          Only the United States and Israel objected. Twelve countries abstained.

          Although the resolution is not binding, it reflected what experts described
          as "astonishing unanimity" by many of America's allies and friends against
          the use of sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy. The vote also
          illustrates the erosion of support for the U.S. policy toward Cuba, the
          experts said.

          "As a general principle when a country finds itself totally isolated and has
          virtually no allies, it should be an occasion for reflection on its policy line,"
          said Jeffrey Laurenti, executive director of Policy Studies at the United
          Nations Association of the United States, a grass-roots organization in
          Washington.

          Laurenti echoed the views of other experts when he said support for
          sanctions diminished dramatically after Congress passed the
          Helms-Burton Act in 1996, extending sanctions to countries and foreign
          companies that do business with Cuba, Iran and other nations with which
          the United States has disputes.

          "The United States has a perfect right to prohibit trade by its own
          nationals or companies with a country it deems a threat to its own
          security," Laurenti said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "But the
          extraterritorial nature of such laws has turned a great deal of friends like
          Canada and the European Union against us."

          Last year 143 nations supported the resolution, and the United States,
          Israel and Uzbekistan opposed it. This year a diplomat from a country
          friendly to the United States said, "The Cubans did not even have to lead
          the fight."

          The number of those opposing the U.S. position has steadily increased in
          annual votes for seven years.

          The resolution cited the Helms-Burton Act, which many here saw as an
          attempt to impose American laws on other countries.

          But the U.S. representative, Ambassador A. Peter Burleigh, said that "the
          Cuban government's systematic denial of universally recognized human
          rights and fundamental freedoms to the people of Cuba" was reason
          enough to maintain the embargo.

          "The United States," Burleigh added, "believes that economic sanctions
          are an important foreign policy tool to be used in certain compelling
          cases."

          The Helms-Burton law has stretched the limits of the 35-year-old
          embargo by allowing U.S. citizens who were Cuban citizens before Fidel
          Castro took power in 1959 to sue foreign companies or individuals. The
          defendants have to be conducting business from property that Cuba
          confiscated.

          The law also denies visas to the United States to shareholders in the
          companies and their executives, and it caused a severe disagreement with
          Canada and the 15 nations of the European Union.

          "Congress has been sanction happy for some time, and the U.S. has kept
          these sanctions on Cuba for domestic reasons," an expert with the
          Council on Foreign Relations, Judith Kipper, said. "Obviously in some
          cases sanctions don't serve American interests. At this stage they are not
          helpful in places like Cuba and Iran. We can accomplish a great deal
          more of what we want in Cuba by opening tourism and trade."

          The General Assembly resolution was introduced by Foreign Minister
          Roberto Robaina of Cuba, who said the embargo had cost Cuba $60
          billion, severely undermining the economy and its 11 million citizens. He
          said the United States was "blind and deaf" to the General Assembly's
          call.

          On a visit to Cuba in March, Pope John Paul II joined the ranks of those
          who were calling for an end to the embargo, which he described in a
          widely publicized speech as "unjust and ethically unacceptable."