The Cuban government is willing to negotiate with the U.S. as it prepares for acute fuel shortages due to increased pressure from Washington, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said during a rare news conference.

¡°Cuba is ready to have talks with the United States over any issue it wants to debate,¡± Diaz-Canel told reporters Thursday in Havana. ¡°But it has to happen without preconditions, and from a position of equals and with respect.¡±

The U.S. is using its economic and military might to try to strangle the communist regime just 90 miles (144 kilometers) south of Florida, Diaz-Canel added.

¡°I¡¯m not an idealist. I know that difficult times are coming,¡± he said, ¡°but, together, we¡¯re going to overcome them.¡±

U.S. President Donald Trump has been turning the screws on Cuba since his first term, but those efforts went into overdrive at the start of January when U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and then cut off Cuba¡¯s fuel supply from the South American nation. The U.S. president has also threatened other countries with tariffs if they come to Cuba¡¯s aid with energy shipments.

The Caribbean nation is mired in its worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union. Diaz-Canel didn¡¯t indicate how much fuel Cuba has left, but oil-vessel tracking analysts estimate it could burn through its current inventory in less than three weeks.

In response to newly muscular policy from Washington, Cuba has been bolstering its military defenses and running its population through drills on the weekends, Diaz-Canel said. He also warned that there were U.S.-backed and financed ¡°terrorist¡± plots designed to ¡°hurt Cuba at a moment like this.¡± While he didn¡¯t provide details, he said the country would denounce those actions at the appropriate time.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared unimpressed with Diaz-Canel¡¯s comments. ¡°The fact that the Cuban government is on its last leg¡± means ¡°they should be wise in their statements directed towards the president of the United States,¡± she told reporters in Washington. However, she added that Trump is nevertheless ¡°always willing to engage in diplomacy.¡±

The State Department later announced it was boosting its humanitarian aid to Cuba by $6 million, for a total of $9 million of emergency rations, solar lamps and other goods. The U.S. said it has tried to bypass the government and get the aid directly to Cubans ¡°without regime interference¡± via the Catholic Church.

Washington¡¯s rationale for toppling the regime in Havana has shifted over the years, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio ¡ª born in Florida to Cuban parents ¡ª has accused the island of sponsoring terrorism and becoming a staging ground for foreign adversaries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.