The United States yesterday accused Cuba of infiltrating the highest levels of government in Washington, as President Donald Trump intensifies his campaign to force an end to communist rule of the island.

A US State Department report alleged that Cuba’s decades-long espionage campaign was “one of the most durable and damaging foreign intelligence penetrations in American history.”

Cuba “has infiltrated the highest reaches of the US government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists (and) backed an unprecedented wave of left-wing terrorism on American soil,” the report said.

While the allegations represent an escalation in US-Cuba tensions, espionage between the two countries has long been known and the report released yesterday contained little new information. It coincides with a revival of alarmist, Cold War-style warnings -- spearheaded by Trump.