Muscat — Oman said it received 10 inmates from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay on Monday, in a move to reduce their number days before US President Barack Obama leaves office.
The statement from the sultanate’s foreign ministry did not disclose the nationality of the prisoners who would reside in the Gulf Arab country on a temporary basis.
“At the request of Sultan Qaboos and the US government for a solution to the question of Guantanamo detainees, 10 of these detainees arrived today in the sultanate to reside here temporarily,” the ministry said, quoted by the official ONA news agency.
The latest transfers would leave the number of Guantanamo detainees at 45, based on figures the Pentagon issued when four Yemenis were sent to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 6.
At the time, Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest said he would expect “additional transfers” before the Democrat hands power to President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
Obama vowed to close the Guantanamo detention facility when he took office in 2009, arguing that detention without trial did not reflect American values.
But faced with Pentagon foot-dragging and stubborn Republican opposition, his administration has focused on whittling down the number of inmates.
Trump has called for a freeze on transfers.
On Jan. 3 he tweeted that “there should be no further releases from Gitmo. These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield.”
Oman previously accepted 10 Guantanamo prisoners from Yemen in January 2016. Oman also took another six in June 2015.
The US began using its military base on southeast Cuba’s isolated, rocky coast to hold prisoners captured during the Afghanistan invasion, bringing the first planeload on Jan. 11, 2002, and reaching a peak 18 months later of nearly 680.
There were 242 prisoners when Obama took office in 2009, pledging to close what became a source of international criticism over the mistreatment of detainees and the notion of holding people indefinitely, most without charge.
