Cliff Sloan, a key figure in the closure of Guantanamo Bay, is resigning.
Sloan, the special envoy for Guantanamo closure at the State Department and a confidant of Secretary of State John Kerry, is leaving the Obama administration.
“I’d like to have about a hundred Cliff Sloans,” Kerry said.
“He’s the real deal. He’s the model of someone very successful on the outside who comes in to the State Department and builds relationships instead of burning bridges, gets people on board with a tough assignment, masters the inter-agency process, and just keeps his head down and proves the doubters dead wrong,” Kerry said in a statement Monday.
Delays in the release of prisoners were said to have been affecting Sloan, sources told the New York Times. Others said there were tensions between him and outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.
The Department of Defense still has a Guantanamo closure chief, Paul Lewis, who is not expected to take over any State Department duties.
After Sunday’s transfer of four prisoners to Afghanistan, 132 prisoners remain in the detention facility in Cuba.
