PHILADELPHIA, PA – August 14, 2025 – The Middle East Forum (MEF) condemns the arbitrary detention, interrogation, and forced deportation of MEF Fellow Amine Ayoub by Cuban authorities during what should have been a routine transit through Havana. Mr. Ayoub, a Moroccan journalist, endured 32 hours of detention without food or water, intensive questioning about Israeli stamps in his passport, and treatment he described as befitting “a terrorist” rather than a peaceful researcher traveling to meet family.
The incident began when Mr. Ayoub arrived at José Martí International Airport en route to the Bahamas for a family reunion. Cuban authorities immediately subjected him to a four-to-five hour interrogation focused obsessively on Israeli visa stamps, seized his phone under false pretenses of “checking reservations,” and ultimately denied his onward travel without explanation or documentation. Confined to a stark holding room with metal chairs, Mr. Ayoub was kept under constant surveillance, escorted by guards even to the bathroom, and given neither food nor water throughout his ordeal. The detention concluded only when Havana’s chief of police personally escorted him onto a deportation flight to Morocco.
This calculated harassment represents more than an isolated incident—it exemplifies Cuba’s systematic targeting of pro-Israel voices and alignment with the most malevolent forces in the Middle East. Since severing diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973, Cuba has positioned itself as a stalwart ally of Palestinian militant groups, Iranian theocrats, and their terrorist proxies. The regime has condemned Israeli self-defense as “genocide,” provided diplomatic cover for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and recently supported international arrest warrants against Israeli leaders through the Group of The Hague. President Miguel Díaz-Canel has parroted Tehran’s rhetoric, characterizing Israeli defensive operations as threats to international peace while maintaining close ties with Hamas and Hezbollah.
“The Cuban regime’s savage treatment of Amine Ayoub exposes the depths of its authoritarian malice and its willingness to export Middle Eastern extremism to the Western Hemisphere,” declared MEF Executive Director Gregg Roman. “This despotic government deliberately avoided creating any official record of Mr. Ayoub’s detention—a calculated attempt to intimidate advocates for truth and democracy while evading accountability. We demand international condemnation of this outrage and call for immediate sanctions against a regime that harbors ties to terrorism while trampling fundamental human rights.”
Mr. Roman added: “Cuba’s detention of Amine Ayoub illuminates the insidious reach of the Tehran-Havana axis of repression. These authoritarian regimes don’t merely share diplomatic pleasantries—they actively coordinate to silence voices that expose their malevolent agendas. That a journalist can be detained, interrogated, and deported simply for bearing Israeli visa stamps reveals how deeply Cuba has internalized the pathologies of its Middle Eastern patrons.”
The deliberate absence of any documentation regarding Mr. Ayoub’s detention suggests a premeditated strategy to harass journalists while maintaining plausible deniability—a hallmark of authoritarian intimidation tactics. Cuban authorities’ focus on Israeli connections, their seizure of electronic devices potentially containing sensitive journalistic work, and their denial of basic necessities constitute a flagrant violation of international norms and human dignity.
The Middle East Forum calls upon democratic governments, human rights organizations, and press freedom advocates worldwide to condemn this atrocity unequivocally.
We demand that Cuba be held accountable for its systematic harassment of journalists and its complicity with state sponsors of terrorism. This incident only strengthens our resolve to support courageous voices like Amine Ayoub who champion truth, democracy, and the cause of Middle East peace in the face of authoritarian persecution.
The Middle East Forum, a non-profit organization founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, promotes American interests and Western values in the Middle East. MEF accomplishes its mission through intellectual and activist efforts. For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
