WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said in a TV interview that he will do “everything I can” to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after four Afghan detainees held there were sent home.
Obama promised to shut the internationally condemned prison when he took office nearly six years ago, saying it was damaging America’s image around the world. But he has been unable to do so, partly because of obstacles posed by the US Congress.
“I’m going to be doing everything I can to close it,” Obama said on CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley,” programme in an interview taped on Friday. “It is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world, the fact that these folks are being held,” he said.
“It is contrary to our values and it is wildly expensive. We’re spending millions for each individual there. And we have drawn down the population there significantly,” he added.
Ties with Cuba
Obama said his plan to normalise relations with Cuba gives the US a chance to influence events at an important moment of change for the communist nation, and he brushed off critics who accuse him of kowtowing to dictators.
Obama said a half-century of trying to push out the Castro government through isolation has not worked. He said his administration is taking a look at whether to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terror, acknowledging that Havana’s inclusion makes it difficult for the US to pursue closer ties.
“If we engage, we have the opportunity to influence the course of events at a time when there’s going to be some generational change in that country,” Obama told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview. “And I think we should seize it and I intend to do so.”
Obama’s move to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba elicited cheers from longtime opponents of the strict US position toward Cuba. Obama said it’s wrong to accuse him of letting dictators outmanoeuvre him, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin as an example. After all, Russia’s currency is now collapsing under the weight of US and European penalties, he pointed out.
“There is this knee-jerk sense, I think, on the part of some in the foreign policy establishment that, you know, shooting first and thinking about it second projects strength,” Obama said.
Agencies
