By David Ariosto, CNN
July 17, 2010 -- Updated 0221 GMT (1021 HKT)
Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on the
island's state-run television for the second time in less than a week on
Friday, using the forum to again blast U.S. arms policy.
"The Yankees want to offer a world without nuclear arms," he said,
adding that the United States wants to substitute conventional arms instead.
But a world limited to conventional arms would leave the United States
in a position of power, he said. The 83-year-old former Cuban leader
cited as an example the power of a Trident submarine to launch "in two
minutes" a missile made of a material stronger than steel that could
travel at speeds up to 25,000 kmh (15,000 mph).
Once it hits, "nothing remains," he said. "Everything disappears."
He added, "These are the conventional arms that remain -- what focus of
resistance [could withstand them]? If they use them on strategic
locations, nothing remains! That is the world without nuclear arms that
they are offering."
Asked about the possibility of a war against Iran, Castro grabbed a
sheaf of newspapers from a pile and read aloud headlines warning of dire
regional and global consequences.
As he sat beside Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, Castro took
questions from the dozens of people who had crowded into a room at
Cuba's Foreign Ministry in Havana and answered them in the long-winded
fashion that is familiar to any Cubans who remember his talks from
before an illness sidelined him in 2006.
After largely staying away from the cameras for years, former Cuban
President Fidel Castro has made five public appearances in less than a week.
The elderly Castro attended a dolphin show at Havana's aquarium on
Thursday, according to the island's evening newscast and daily state-run
newspaper.
The state-run newspaper, Granma, showed images of the aging Cuban
revolutionary greeting aquarium employees and watching scuba divers
interact with dolphins.
Photos of the octogenarian at a scientific center were published last
Saturday showing his first public appearance since his illness in 2006
forced him to hand the reins of power to his younger brother Raul.
Fidel Castro was interviewed on Cuba's evening television newscast on
Monday, when he slammed U.S. foreign policy with North Korea and in the
Middle East and warned of a potential nuclear war with Iran. He also
appeared Tuesday at an economics institute.
Friday's latest appearance by the former Cuban leader comes on the heels
of the first release of political prisoners to Spain. The group of seven
dissidents railed against the Castro brothers and the condition of their
imprisonment during a news conference in the Spanish capital on Thursday.
The group is among 52 political prisoners expected to be released in
coming months, in what would be the largest Cuban prisoner release in
more than a decade.
They represent roughly one-third of all known political prisoners left
on the island and are the remainder of a group of 75 dissidents arrested
in March 2003 during a crackdown on government opposition under
then-president Fidel Castro.
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