Obama, Yemeni president pledge to work together on Guantanamo prisioners

{mosads}Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that while the leaders would discuss the return of Guantanamo prisoners, he did not expect any announcements about the immediate transfer of detainees. Of the 86 detainees that have been cleared for return to their home country, 56 are from Yemen.

“I anticipate that the President will reiterate to President Hadi his firm commitment to closing Guantanamo and his decision to lift the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen in favor of a case-by-case approach,” Carney said. “But the lifting of the moratorium did not mean a mass exodus.  It meant that we would then move to a case-by-case evaluation of each detainee, which is the case and has been the case in the non-Yemeni detainees.”

During the meeting with Obama, Hadi said that he intends to establish an extremist rehabilitation program within his country, both to accept back Guantanamo prisoners and help address the issue of violent extremism within its borders.