Trump announces new restrictions on Cuba travel

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced new restrictions on U.S. leisure travel to Cuba and U.S. business with Cuban military.

"The previous administration's easing of restrictions on travel and trade do not help the Cuban people," said Trump at a rally at Miami's Little Havana, Florida, adding that he was effectively immediately canceling his predecessor Barack Obama's "one-sided deal" with Cuba.

According to a statement by the White House, U.S. individuals and companies will be prohibited from doing commerce with Cuban businesses owned by the Cuban military.

As to travels, individual leisure travel, permitted by the Obama administration, will be prohibited, and Americans will be required to visit Cuba through tour groups.

Trump also reaffirmed U.S. statutory embargo of Cuba.

Despite his effort to roll back parts of his predecessor Barack Obama's cuba policy, Trump stopped short of closing U.S. embassy in Cuba.

"The U.S. embassy (in Cuba) will remain open in hope that our countries can forge a much stronger and better path," he said.

The policy changes partially fulfilled a campaign promise by Trump and aligned him with hawkish Cuban-American Republicans in the U.S. Congress.

In December 2014, in the most sweeping change in U.S.-Cuban relations in five decades, Obama announced plans to normalize ties with Cuba in a move that quickly sparked much controversy in the United States.

Since then, improvements have been made in U.S.-Cuban diplomatic, social and commercial ties, with the U.S. opening an embassy in Cuba, increasing flights to Cuba, and some U.S. businesses expanding into the island nation for the first time in five decades.

America severed ties with Cuba in 1961, shortly after Fidel Castro launched a revolution that toppled a U.S.-friendly government, and the two countries had been at loggerheads ever since.