Castro slams former Spain PM over Serbia bombing

Fidel Castro says Spain's former prime minister suggested Serbian media as targets in the 1999 NATO campaign. In the official Juventud Rebelde newspaper on Sunday, the Cuban leader published what he said was a transcript of a conversation Jose Maria Aznar had with a U.S. official about strategy during NATO's bombing of Serbian forces in 1999 “to force them to stop attacking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.” Castro slams former Spain PM over Serbia bombing Castro did not explain how or when he obtained the transcript and does not identify the U.S. official or publish the U.S. official's part of the conversation. Castro had claimed previously to have a transcript of a conversation between former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Aznar. He says Aznar in the new transcript discusses the possibility of a ground war if NATO's bombing campaign fails, urging a stepped-up air campaign. "My idea is that to win this war communications must be cut between the Belgrade government and the people. It's vital to cut all Serbian communications, radio, television and telephone," he is quoted as saying. Spain's relations with Cuba reached a breaking point under Aznar. His Popular Party opposes the new Socialist government's efforts to improve relations with the Communist island. The Cuban leader introduced the transcript on Sunday by repeating his earlier accusation that Aznar told Clinton on April 13, 1999: "I do not understand why we still have not bombed Serbian radio and television." That was also based on an alleged transcript that Castro said he had. Castro, 81, who occasionally appears in videos and photographs and has taken to writing essays for the state-run media as his younger brother Raul Castro runs the country, wrote in Sunday's article that he would publish more "public and confidential" materials in forthcoming essays.

Castro slams former Spain PM over Serbia bombing

Castro did not explain how or when he obtained the transcript and does not identify the U.S. official or publish the U.S. official's part of the conversation.

Castro had claimed previously to have a transcript of a conversation between former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Aznar.

He says Aznar in the new transcript discusses the possibility of a ground war if NATO's bombing campaign fails, urging a stepped-up air campaign.

"My idea is that to win this war communications must be cut between the Belgrade government and the people. It's vital to cut all Serbian communications, radio, television and telephone," he is quoted as saying.

Spain's relations with Cuba reached a breaking point under Aznar. His Popular Party opposes the new Socialist government's efforts to improve relations with the Communist island.

The Cuban leader introduced the transcript on Sunday by repeating his earlier accusation that Aznar told Clinton on April 13, 1999: "I do not understand why we still have not bombed Serbian radio and television." That was also based on an alleged transcript that Castro said he had.

Castro, 81, who occasionally appears in videos and photographs and has taken to writing essays for the state-run media as his younger brother Raul Castro runs the country, wrote in Sunday's article that he would publish more "public and confidential" materials in forthcoming essays.