CUBA: Cuban leader Fidel Castro appears in his first television interview in more than three months

In an interview broadcast on Cuban TV on Friday (September 21), Fidel Castro, 81, spoke slowly about world affairs, the Cold War and the global economy, but appeared little changed from the last time he was shown in a state television interview on June 5. He showed a copy of a book by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, The Age of Turbulence, which was published this week. Interviewer Rudy Alonso said the interview took place earlier on Friday. "Here I am," Castro said, rebuffing those who have speculated that he was at death's door, already dead or about to die. "Nobody knows when he is going to die." Dressed in what has become a customary red, blue and white athletic jacket, Castro answered questions about an essay he published this week. "They are going to talk about all these topics, but the dangers I am referring to are underlying, the danger of an attack against Iran, (the U.S.) is making international organisations go there (to Iran), they have total control. Look, we for example, are producers of cobalt, nickel and cobalt, something that can be used, not that we can use it, it's never occurred to us to ruin ourselves making nuclear weapons," said Castro. Castro gave a bleak assessment of the direction the world was headed. "It would in theory be the solution, that the world would not fight to destroy itself, that it would fight for cooperation which would allow it to preserve itself, today everything points towards destruction," said Castro. Castro, who took power on the Caribbean island in a 1959 revolution, handed over control to his younger brother, Raul Castro, on July 31, 2006 after emergency intestinal surgery. He has not appeared in public since then. Instead, he has been seen in occasional photographs and videos with visiting foreign leader, producing columns and essays printed by state media. Cubans at the Havana train station watched the broadcast and welcomed the reappearance of Castro. "It's one more way to disarm the subversive news of his death, we see him there enjoying tremendous health despite his illness that we know about," said Cuban Ober Nuviola. "Very proud to see the Commandante, after not seeing him for so long," said Francisca Gutierrez. "There have been comments that Fidel was in his last days, and there we see him recovered, he is fine, they know in the United States that he's in shape, he's the best, there is no one better than him," said Orlando Herrera.

ITN Source | September 22, 2007

Tags:. .solution. .foreign. .fine. .slowly. .iran