The parliamentary leader of Cuba says that his country is only weeks away from radical change to 50-year-old travel restrictions on its people.

The president of Cuba’s National Assembly of People's Power, Ricardo Alarcon, told a French journalist in an interview last month that the Cuban government is discussing easing travel restrictions with the intent to eliminate some restrictions entirely in months to come.

However, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcos Rodríguez Costa denied the parliamentary leader's statement, explaining restrictions on people who want to travel out of Cuba are inevitable as long as threats exist from Washington. He added that its undesirable to have too high expectations for the ease of restrictions.

A researcher at the U.S.-based Lexington Institute said that the Cuban authorities will make great strides forward if they let up on the travel restrictions.