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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel<\/a><\/span> told NBC News\u2019 Meet the Press that he would not step down in his first interview with a U.S. network, a portion of which was broadcast Thursday.<\/p>\n In a nearly five-minute clip that is part of a longer interview scheduled to air on Sunday, journalist Kristen Welker asked D\u00edaz-Canel if he would be \u201cwilling to step down if it meant saving Cuba.<\/a><\/span> \u201d<\/p>\n Before answering, D\u00edaz-Canel asked if she had ever posed that question to any other president in the world: \u201cIs that a question from you, or is that coming from the State Department of the U.S. government?\u201d<\/p>\n D\u00edaz-Canel added: \u201cIn Cuba, the people who are in leadership position are not elected by the U.S. government, and they don\u2019t have a mandate from the U.S. government. We have a free sovereign state.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he became president not out of a \u201cpersonal ambition or corporate ambition or even a party ambition,\u201d but because of a mandate by the people.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Cuban people understand that I am not fit for office, that I have no reason to be here, then I should not be holding this position of president, I will respond to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The interview comes as tensions between Cuba and the U.S. remain high despite both sides acknowledging talks<\/a><\/span>, although no details have been shared.<\/p>\n D\u00edaz-Canel accused the U.S. government of implementing a \u201chostile policy\u201d against Cuba and said it has \u201cno moral to demand anything from Cuba.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the U.S. should recognize how much the policies have cost the Cuban people \u201cand how much they have deprived the American people from a normal relationship with the Cuban people.\u201d<\/p>\n D\u00edaz-Canel noted that Cuba is interested in engaging in dialogue and discussing any topic without conditions, \u201cnot demanding changes from our political system as we are not demanding change from the American system, about which we have a number of doubts.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuba blames a U.S. energy blockade for its deepening woes<\/a><\/span>, with a lack of petroleum affecting the island\u2019s health system, public transportation and the production of goods and services.<\/p>\n In late March, a Russian tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of crude oil arrived in Cuba<\/a><\/span>, marking the island\u2019s first oil shipment in three months. Russia has promised to send a second tanker.<\/p>\n Despite threatening tariffs in early January<\/a><\/span> on countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump allowed the tanker to proceed.<\/p>\n \u201cCuba\u2019s finished,\u201d Trump said at the time. \u201cThey have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership and whether or not they get a boat of oil, it\u2019s not going to matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuba produces only 40% of the fuel it consumes, and it stopped receiving key oil shipments from Venezuela after the U.S. attacked the South American country in early January and arrested its then leader.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n