Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has promised to "absolutely" reverse the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba if he were to move into the White House following the 2016 election, the Guardian reported.

The Florida senator renewed his criticism of President Barack Obama's steps to normalize relations with the Communist country, a move that culminated with the recently announced restoration of full diplomatic ties and imminent opening of embassies in Havana and Washington.

"In fact, I think (those steps were taken) in violation of the law," Rubio said during an interview he conceded the British newspaper in Iowa. "The statute passed by Congress specifically prohibits many of the things (Obama is) now undertaking. It says those things can only happen after certain conditions have been met, none of which have been met. As president, I will follow the law," the senator added.

In an op-ed written for the New York Times, the son of Cuban immigrants had sharply attacked Obama over the weekend and called out what he deemed the president's "Faustian bargain" with the island nation's Communist regime.

"The only people who are responsible for the Cuban people's woes are their geriatric rulers, who insist on maintaining a socialist economy that almost all other countries — with the possible exception of North Korea — have realized is a failed relic of the past," Rubio wrote in reference to Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his brother, Raúl Castro, the nation's current president.

"These dictators ... deny their people access to the Internet ... direct the security services that terrorize and harass any citizen who dares speak up (and) imprison people who attempt to defy the system. (And) Mr. Obama's outreach has done nothing to change any of this," the senator insisted.