Mike Waltz, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations [UPI=Yonhap News File Photo]

Mike Waltz, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, stated on the 12th (local time) that the Cuban regime poses a threat to U.S. national security and that the Donald Trump administration will not stand idly by in the face of this situation.

Ambassador Waltz made these remarks during an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," noting that China and Russia are collecting intelligence around U.S. military bases in Cuba.

"The Cuban regime is a threat not only to its own people but also to the national security of the United States," he said. "The Trump administration will no longer sit by and watch this happen."

Ambassador Waltz cited as evidence the fact that China and Russia continue to maintain intelligence agency outposts, signals intelligence collection sites, and military officers in Cuba, which he described as the front yard of the U.S. mainland.

"They are no longer in Venezuela, and they have disappeared from the southern region of Central America," he mentioned, adding, "During the Joe Biden administration and previous administrations, they had even expanded their influence to the Panama Canal."

The United States classifies Cuba as a security threat and continues to impose sanctions, including an economic embargo.

The Trump administration has been intensifying economic pressure, including blocking oil supplies from Venezuela—Cuba's main source of crude oil—in January of this year.

The U.S. has also continued to take measures targeting the Cuban leadership, such as indicting former President (Chairman of the Council of State) Raul Castro, the younger brother of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (1926–2016), in connection with past events.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also issued a statement the previous day marking the 5th anniversary of large-scale anti-government protests in Cuba, criticizing the regime by stating, "Even as the people call for reform, Cuba’s communist rulers are tightening their economic control, siphoning off what few resources remain to foreign countries, and blaming others for their own failures."

He continued by urging the Cuban regime to implement reforms, stating, "They continue to collude with America’s enemies, hosting hostile foreign military, intelligence, terrorist, and various operational activities less than 100 miles from our shores, and supporting dangerous subversive elements and terrorist organizations within the U.S., thereby posing a grave national security threat to our country."