WASHINGTON-
The United States is in engaged in discussions with a wide range of countries to move “as aggressively as we can” to accelerate the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners, the State Department’s envoy has said.
Seven months after his appointment, high-powered Washington attorney Clifford Sloan said in a interview that the administration is in its best position in years to negotiate the repatriation of detainees, including to chaotic destinations like Yemen, or arrange their resettlement in countries other than the their homeland.
Major obstacles remain, but Sloan said lawmakers had loosened restrictions enough to open the way for “significant progress” toward emptying the jail and achieving Obama’s new goal of closing it by the end of the year.
Most prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba have languished for a decade or more without being charged or given a trial.
“We are talking to a wide range of countries and we are moving forward as aggressively as we can. I expect that you’ll be seeing action on that front,” Sloan told a foreign news agency this week.
Obama promised at the start of his presidency in 2009 to shut the Guantanamo detention center, but failed to do so, largely due to opposition from the U.S. Congress.
In his annual State of the Union address last week, Obama told Americans “this needs to be the year” that Guantanamo is finally shut down and urged Congress to help him do it. But he offered no new prescription for removing the camp’s remaining 155 prisoners.
Human rights groups welcomed the rhetoric, but some remain skeptical after years of delays.
