United States | The plane was already ready to take a third of the Guantánamo prisoners to freedom – the Hamas attack canceled the plans

United States was about to release more than a dozen prisoners from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp to Oman when Hamas’s attack on Israel last October canceled the plan. Official sources of the US administration reported on the incident, among other things by NBC News and of The New York Times by.

The military cargo plane was already on the runway ready for departure. The prisoners had already had their luggage collected, which was then returned to them.

According to official sources, the plan was canceled because the Hamas attack got the president Joe Biden representatives of the Democratic Party to worry about the timing of the release after the crisis in the Middle East intensified.

The prisoners to be released are Yemeni or otherwise connected to Yemen, and none of them have been charged. They are still going to be released, but there is no information about the new schedule.

United States holds prisoners at its Guantánamo Bay military base on the island of Cuba that it seized starting in 2002 as part of its so-called war on terror.

A total of around 780 prisoners were taken to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, of which only seven have been sentenced. Nine prisoners have died in custody.

There are 30 prisoners left. 11 of them have been charged and only one of them has been sentenced, and it has been 15 years since then.

Already the president Barack Obama promised to close the prison camp, but still has not succeeded.

My own is known as a stable monarchy with good relations in many directions in the middle of the crisis centers of the Middle East. It often acts as a mediator in disputes between other countries and, for example, in the release of hostages.

The Washington Post news meanwhile, on Wednesday, that Oman wants to get rid of the 28 Yemenis it received from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp between 2015 and 2017. The treatment of these prisoners in Oman has been considered a model example of escorting former terror suspects to a new life, but Oman does not intend to renew their residence permits.

Oman did not explain its decision to The Washington Post.

“You could say that they are making room in a way,” said an official source of the US administration to the newspaper.