US drops charges against Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Pentagon dropped war crimes charges against a Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantanamo on Friday and a US official said the United States and Kuwait were in talks about the possibility of repatriating the last two Kuwaitis held there.

Kuwait is a US ally and the Gulf state’s parliament has condemned the continued detention of its citizens, Faiz al Kandari and Fawazi al Odah, at the Guantanamo Bay USmilitary base in Cuba, where both have been held for more than a decade.

Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA reported on Friday that a Kuwaiti delegation had held talks with US officials seeking their return. It quoted Kuwait’s ambassador to Washington, Salem Abdullah al- Jaber alSabah, as saying more talks were expected in the upcoming weeks.

A senior US official confi rmed that a Kuwaiti team had recently visited Washington to discuss the matter but suggested the talks would be long and challenging.

“There are a great number of obstacles and this will be a lengthy and difficult process,” said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We are aware that they want them back. Because of legal restrictions and our own view of these people, this will be a protracted and difficult process.”

Guantanamo prosecutors charged Kandari in 2008 with conspiring with al-Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism.