MADRID (Reuters) - The United States has asked Spain to take four inmates from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Madrid will study the request case by case, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Wednesday.
"We will study each case one by one and respond once we understand the implications of the decision and in what way we can help the United States close Guantanamo," Moratinos told a news conference.
"There may be more cases presented in the future," he said.
Senior U.S. State Department official Daniel Fried had been due to meet Spanish officials in Madrid to discuss possible relocation of detainees from Guantanamo, Spanish and U.S. embassy officials said.
Newspaper El Pais reported that Spain was prepared to take between three and five inmates but that Spanish authorities want to discuss who would pay for security for any such detainees.
The men in question would probably be Syrian and Tunisian citizens, would not necessarily have any prior links to Spain and would probably have freedom of movement within the country, the newspaper reported.
The European Union said on Monday that its member states were ready to help resettle detainees freed from the prison at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. Italy has agreed to take three of the prisoners.
Soon after taking office on January 20, U.S. President Barack Obama set a one-year deadline for closing the prison, which holds more than 220 inmates and has been strongly criticized by human rights groups.
Obama has insisted some of the inmates will be sent to prisons in the United States, but he faces strong opposition in Congress.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski and Jason Webb; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Source: Reuters
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