By IRNA,
Berlin : Germany has reportedly agreed to take in an unspecified number of inmates still languishing at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, the Munich-based weekly news magazine Focus said Saturday.
It quoted German Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere as saying that Chancellor Angela was willing “to help the Americans” on the issue.
This would mean that Germany would accept at least one of the three candidates, one Syrian national and two Palestinians, for resettlement in the European country.
Berlin had been involved in secret talks with Washington on taking in Guantanamo prisoners In March, a German delegation met with some of the prisoners who are on its short-list, at the US military jail.
The German interior ministry received late last year a list of names by US special envoy Daniel Fried who is in charge of relocating Guantanamo inmates to other countries.
Both sides have been involved in secret talks over the modalities of the prisoner transfer over the past several months.
German authorities have conducted lengthy personal interviews with the inmates to see whether they could be taken in by Germany.
More than 180 inmates remain reportedly in America’s notorious prison for foreign terrorism suspects in Cuba.
The Obama administration, which aims to shut down the Guantanamo prison, has struggled to relocate detainees deemed to no longer pose a threat to US interests.
Few of its foreign allies have been willing to accept them and there is strong opposition within America to having them on US territory.