UN votes against US Cuba embargo

The embargo has been in place for more than 40 years

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly for an end to the United States' 40-year-old economic embargo against Cuba.

The vote marks the 12th consecutive year that the assembly has called for an end to the blockade.

Only three nations voted against the motion - the US, Israel and the Marshall Islands. Two others abstained.

The US embargo was imposed on Cuba after Fidel Castro defeated a 1961 CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs.

"The blockade is a cruel and absurd policy that finds no support within or outside the United States," Cuban Foreign Minister Perez Roque said.

"The crime being committed against Cuba today could very well be committed against any other country tomorrow."