US transfers 15 detainees to UAE

WASHINGTON: The US has transferred 15 Guantanamo detainees from Cuba to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release in the past seven years, Pentagon announced yesterday. The transfer of the 15 detainees, among whom 12 were Yemeni nationals and the other three Afghans, reduced the population of the military prison to 61 and came six months after US President Barack Obama made what was widely seen as his last plea for support from the Republican-controlled Congress to close the facility.

The Pentagon said the US was “grateful to the government of the United Arab Emirates for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility”. In February, Obama unveiled a longstalled closure plan in his apparent last-ditch effort to seek co-operation from the Congress to close the Guantanamo prison.

According to the plan, some of the detainees still held in Guantanamo would be transferred to other countries and the Obama administration would review the threat posed by detainees who were not eligible for transfers and identify those eligible for military trials. But, the closure plan left unanswered a crucial question as to where the administration would put some detainees ineligible for transfers inside the US.

Republicans in the Congress have pledged to fight against bringing any Guantanamo detainees back to the United States. – Xinhua