U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with terror victims' families to discuss steps to close the Guantanamo prison where terrorist suspects are detained, the White House said on Friday.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a press briefing that Obama "wants to discuss his plan to bring about changes in Guantanamo that he believes will make this country safer and bring about the very same swift justice that they desire on behalf of those that they know that have been killed."
The meeting was arranged after Obama issued executive orders on Jan. 22 to suspend all legal action on the Guantanamo detainees to allow those cases to be reviewed, as a step to close the controversial facility drawing criticism against former President George W. Bush's administration, Xinhua reported.
As a result of the orders, charges against a terrorist suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national, who is accused of masterminding the bombing attacks at the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, leaving 17 U.S. sailors killed and many others injured.
However, among about 15 victims' relatives who were meeting with Obama, many are upset about the suspension of Nashiri's case that was set to be on trial later this month, saying that they have already waited too long to see the alleged attacker brought to court, according to U.S. media reports.
Obama has vowed during his campaign to close the prison in the U.S. Guantanamo Navy base in Cuba, where there are currently about 245 detainees, within one year of his administration.