Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told NBC News' Meet the Press that he would not step down in his first interview with a US network, a portion of which was broadcast Thursday, Report informs.
In a nearly five-minute clip that is part of a longer interview scheduled to air on Sunday, journalist Kristen Welker asked Díaz-Canel if he would be "willing to step down if it meant saving Cuba. "
Before answering, Díaz-Canel asked if she had ever posed that question to any other president in the world: "Is that a question from you, or is that coming from the State Department of the US government?"
Díaz-Canel added: "In Cuba, the people who are in leadership position are not elected by the US government, and they don"t have a mandate from the US government. We have a free sovereign state."
He said he became president not out of a "personal ambition or corporate ambition or even a party ambition," but because of a mandate by the people.