NEW YORK/HAVANA – The United States imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and several other individuals and entities on Thursday to ramp up pressure on the island country.

The US Treasury Department has added Diaz-Canel, four other individuals and five entities, including Cuba's Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, to the Specially Designated Nationals List, according to an update posted on the department's website.

Diaz-Canel, 66, succeeded Raul Castro as Cuban president in 2018.

In May, the US government sanctioned 11 Cuban officials and charged Raul Castro over a 1996 incident involving Cuban exiles.

In a post on X, Diaz-Canel said the new sanctions, along with recent remarks by US President Donald Trump, would further tighten the blockade against Cuba and deepen tensions between the two countries.

Earlier, Trump suggested that the United States could turn its attention to Cuba once the conflict with Iran winds down.

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He added that the "coercive measures" applied in recent weeks against Cuba were designed to harm the Cuban people, and the "aggressiveness and perversity" of the US government will clash with Cuba's determination to "face the worst scenarios and resist the imperial offensive".

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also said on Thursday that the inclusion of Diaz-Canel and other Cuban entities and individuals on the sanction list "is the latest demonstration of the US interventionist plan to portray Cuba as a threat to the national security of the United States".

Rodriguez wrote on X that US actions aimed at "building a scenario of conflict" between the two nations are "doomed to failure".