UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday abstained for the first time from a United Nations General Assembly vote on a resolution calling for an end to a U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, after opposing such measures every year for 24 years. pic.twitter.com/cbNyy0NRdp — Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) October 26, 2016

This was the 25th time that the U.N. General Assembly has voted on a resolution calling for an end to the embargo, which has been in place since 1962, as Reuters reported. A U.S. official said Power would point to elements of this year's resolution that the U.S. does not back, despite its overall support for lifting the embargo, as the reason why the U.S. was abstaining instead of voting for the resolution outright. UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES: The United States will for the first time abstain from a vote at the United Nations calling for an end to the US embargo against Cuba, Ambassador Samantha Power said Wednesday. On Wednesday, however, the US took the small but significant step of changing its vote to an abstention on the annual UN General Assembly resolution calling for an end to the US economic embargo of the island nation. Yesterday’s U.N. General Assembly vote was the 25th time Cuba has marshaled international support against the embargo and Cuba usually wins overwhelming support for a resolution which is non-binding, President of the Guyana-Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM) Haleem Khan said.
For the first time in 25 years, the United States abstains in a United Nations vote calling for an end to its Cuban economic embargo.