US attorney general Eric Holder has said the United States would close the Guantánamo Bay facility holding terrorism suspects in Cuba, despite missing a previous deadline to do so.
On an official visit to Paris, Mr Holder stressed what he called unprecedented intelligence-sharing ties between France and the US against a united enemy, al-Qaeda, that he said still held the two countries and its allies in its sights.
The recent killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was unlikely to affect the timing of the closure of the Guantánamo facility, Mr Holder added.
“Although we have not closed Guantánamo within the time period that we initially indicated . . . it is still the intention of the president, and it is still my intention, to close the facility that exists in Guantánamo,” Mr Holder said.