Havana - Cuba's President Miguel Diaz-Canel has claimed on Thursday the US Government is denying visas and hindering diplomatic work between the two countries.

'The US is denying visas and obstructing the work of diplomatic missions with the aim to justify and continue backtracking bilateral relations with Cuba. Both the American and Cuban people reject such perverse behavior,' the Statesman wrote in his Twitter account.

The President's tweet follows up a statement issued last night by the Cuban Foreign Ministry rejecting Washington's new maneuvering to further worsen the already tense links, as part of heightened anti-Cuban hostility the Donald Trump administration has been pushing forward.

The release warns that in the past months the State Department has been holding up diplomatic and official visas the staff from embassies of both countries in Washington and Havana need for carrying out their work.

'The maneuvering consists on using as a pretext that Cuba is delaying visas for officials assigned to the US Embassy to Cuba, thus allegedly hampering the work of that diplomatic mission,' the statement points out.

The Cuban authorities uphold the State Department is deliberately covering up it the US Government's responsibility in cutting back the staff of its embassy in Havana in September, 2017, including the head of its consular services.

Furthermore, it was the US Government's decision to expel arbitrarily and unjustly 15 diplomatic officials from the Cuban Embassy in Washington in October last year, the statement goes on.

Since that date, the work of both missions has been affected by such unilateral decisions. 'Likewise, the granting of needed visas for the staff of both embassies has been subjected to capricious approvals and delays by the State Department,' the Cuban Foreign Ministry complains.